How Unified is the Storage solution? What is the Data Protection Strategy? What are the Options for Local Support? YOU SHOULD CONSIDER

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1 How Unified is the Storage solution? What about Storage Efficiency? What is the Data Protection Strategy? What are the Options for Local Support? 10 THINGS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER before making a storage plat form decision

2 A Note from IP Pathways All of us at IP Pathways want to thank you for investigating our take on the world of storage. The views expressed herein are those of IP Pathways and are based on our experience as a leader in storage and virtualization. IP Pathways is a reseller of NetApp unified storage solutions and as a company we do believe that NetApp is the leading unified storage manufacturer in the marketplace today. Our views are those of the storage industry as a whole and are not about any one manufacturer. When investigating storage solutions, you have many choices and those choices seem to grow daily. The marketplace is cluttered with net upstarts and established veterans adding new lines and options. An IDC report in November of 2012 projected the average small-to-medium enterprise would experience a 50% increase in storage footprint by the end of 2014 as virtualization and private clouds are further embraced. Most IT organizations will make an investment in a storage platform once every 3-5 years. They will then scale that platform up or out, depending on manufacturer options and their internal growth and needs. For most organizations, this is a significant expenditure but more importantly, if the investment is only made once every 3-5 years, the IT department will be dependent on that platform to deliver the features and functionality needed in the marketplace. Many manufacturers that were selected by companies 3-5 years ago have not stayed current with unified storage, data protection and scaling needs, so making the right choice now is very important. IP Pathways helps customers understand the options and make sense of the features, functionality and strategic direction of various platforms. This is why IP Pathways is Leading the Data Center Revolution.

3 State of Storage. Virtualization became a standard for deploying data center infrastructures in the mid-to-late 2000 s and changed how most companies view centralized data storage. Applications and data were centralized onto a stack of shared computers and storage resources, and the SAN/NAS at the core became a common infrastructure component for companies both large and small. The SAN/NAS at the core of a customer s virtualized data center infrastructure is likely the single largest purchase the organization will make in building out their infrastructure. This is a fact not lost on manufacturers of IT infrastructure hardware. The landscape is full of SAN/NAS manufacturers, all bragging about their shiny bells and whistles; many claiming they approach storage like no other. Customers have more choices than ever before and can find the process of selecting a SAN/NAS platform very confusing. A SAN or NAS went from being a component utilized by the enterprise, to the core of the modern virtualized data center and IT hardware manufacturers moved to make their mark and get a piece of the pie. IP Pathways helps customers make sense of all the hype and focus on what s important. 3

4 1 How Unified is the Storage Solution? In today s world, customers need more than FC (fiber channel) or iscsi only solutions. The lines between SAN and NAS functions have blurred and customers need their storage arrays to present multiple protocols. It is important when evaluating solutions to understand how these needs will be met. CIFS, iscsi, FC, FCoE and NFS all have their use cases and it is likely that a combination of these protocols may be required to best meet a customer s need. Some arrays are unified and present all of these protocols, whereas others may present only iscsi. In the world of IT, things change quickly and if your storage can not change along with the rest of IT, you may be forced to compromise. IP Pathways is proud to present NetApp Unified Storage FAS arrays. We call NetApp the Swiss Army Knife of storage solutions because it does it all. NetApp FAS arrays can present CIFS, iscsi, FC, FCoE and NFS protocols without the need to add expensive hardware or software add-ons. We like to say that NetApp gives our customers the ability to be agile and make changes at the speed of technology.

5 2 How Many Operating Systems Will You Manage? We all want simplicity today. Server virtualization consolidated the data center and gave us a standard for the deployment, management and administration of servers. Complicated and time consuming management systems are no longer desirable as IT needs to keep pace with the business. Assuming the storage solution you are evaluating is unified, the next question is how unified? SAN and NAS functions typically are managed by different operating systems and the disk utilized is separate by operating system as well. Bringing multiple operating systems together into one administrative view but still managing separately is not embracing efficiency and simplicity. Further, as customers scale, will the same operating system be utilized or will they change with lines and models? NetApp boasts the #1 Storage OS in the market. The same operating system is utilized throughout the entire NetApp FAS line; from smallest to largest, and it is the same OS regardless of protocol. This means that NetApp customers only learn and manage One OS, making the solution easy to manage. 5

6 3 What About Storage Efficiency? We at IP Pathways define Storage Efficiency as storing and managing data in a manner that consumes the least amount of space while still delivering maximum performance. Technologies such as thin provisioning, deduplication, compression, snapshots and cloning are all part of a storage efficiency strategy. It is important to understand how manufacturers approach storage efficiency. As an example, all deduplication is not equal and while compression may be effective for seldom used data, it may not be appropriate for VMs ( virtual machines ). Require manufacturers to demonstrate how they will employ storage efficiency strategies in your environment and ask the hard questions. NetApp is a leader in storage efficiency and IP Pathways was named the NetApp Leader in Storage Efficiency in NetApp is built around storage efficiency and both stores and manages data in a manner that consumes the least amount of space while delivering maximum performance. This all starts with NetApp s #1 Storage OS. Thin provisioning, block-level data deduplication, Data deduplication is a method of reducing storage needs by eliminating redundant data. Dedupe lowers storage space requirements and will save money on disk expenditures. compression, snapshots and cloning are all built in and require no additional bolt-on pieces or parts to accomplish. NetApp makes data storage efficient while still delivering enterprise-class performance.

7 4 What is the Data Protection Strategy? Data protection is one of the more overlooked feature sets when evaluating data storage manufacturers today. If you have been to a VMware User s Group meeting in the past year, there is a good chance a vendor spoke about protecting your VMs. We believe a main reason that vendors who exist to simply protect your VMs are in business is because the data storage manufacturers have not adequately addressed data protection natively. If we live in a virtual world and these VMs reside on a SAN, NAS or Unified Storage Array, it stands to reason that data protection could be handled by that storage device. VM and application level snapshots exist and are native with some data storage manufacturers. Addressing data protection at the storage layer can eliminate the need, complexity and cost of having to address elsewhere. NetApp has application aware snapshots to protect VMs, Microsoft applications such as Exchange, SQL and SharePoint, Oracle and SAP. These application aware snapshots are very granular and can be taken various times throughout the day without disrupting operations. This means customers can achieve granular restore options and multiple point-in-time snapshots from which to choose. Because snapshots are part of NetApp s storage efficiency which includes block-level deduplication, the impact on space consumption and performance is minimal. NetApp allows customers to protect their data without adding bolt-on hardware or software solutions and uses native tools to address, which means NetApp s data protection strategy is simplified management and further efficiency. 7

8 5 What are the Replication and Business Continuity Options? We are more and more reliant on our computer systems and data infrastructure. The web, , CRM, accounting, payroll A storage platform that includes native replication methods saves customers from the expense of purchasing expensive bolt-on hardware and software to get the data offsite. and phone systems may all be served from a customer s data infrastructure. If a disaster causes a loss of their computer systems, it can impact the ability of the company to stay in business. The longer the business and their systems are impacted, the higher the probability the business will not recover. Therefore, it is imperative system outages in the event of a disaster be minimized. Replicating systems to a second location where those systems can be recovered in the event of a disaster is an effective way of addressing business continuity of computer systems and applications. Not all storage platforms have built-in replication abilities and of those that do, many do not utilize efficient ways to replicate the data. NetApp has efficient and easy-to-manage native replication abilities. NetApp s replication is accomplished without adding bolt-on hardware or software and is built on top of the storage manufacturer s #1 Storage OS including their storage efficiency and data protection features. Point-intime snapshots are taken and after block-level deduplication occurs, they are replicated to the destination FAS array. The process is simple, easy and comprehensive. In the event of a disaster, the array at the destination location can be quickly converted to a production array and systems can be restored at that location.

9 6 What is the Scaling Strategy? Customer environments continually grow, consume more capacity and require more and more processing power and storage footprints. We create more and more data, utilize more applications and centralize more data with each passing year. How a storage manufacturer s platform scales to accommodate a customer s needs is extremely important. Some manufacturers platforms scale up, meaning you add disk shelves and can upgrade controllers for more processing power, while some scale out by adding new units that have their own disk and controllers. There are some platforms that have no scaling strategy and you must rip and replace the existing platform with a new platform to accommodate changing needs. When evaluating solutions, you should understand how manufacturers accommodate different conditions ranging from the need for more I/O to simply requiring additional capacity. NetApp Unified Storage FAS arrays allow customers to scale both up and out. Customers can add capacity, upgrade units or add additional units to form a cluster of storage resources. Because all FAS units, from the smallest to the largest, run the same #1 Storage OS, scaling is easy, convenient and there are options to meet all needs. NetApp doesn t limit the options and lock customers into a specific scaling strategy; rather they provide options and allow customers to adopt a strategy that meets their specific needs. 9

10 7 How was the Solution Sized? Many customers think of their data storage needs in terms of capacity; they talk about needing xtbs of storage as an example. Data storage does meet the customer s capacity needs, but with today s virtualized data infrastructures the storage solution is where much of the performance is derived. It is important to choose the appropriate type of disk to match the data type, ensure the array has appropriate processing capabilities and has the ability to execute workload of reads and writes. SATA disk provides more storage capacity, but less reads and writes can be performed as compared to higher performance with lower capacity SAS disk. SATA is a great choice for file storage whereas SAS is a great choice for applications. Sizing storage solutions to meet all these needs is complicated and the math behind the configurations should be questioned and challenged. IP Pathways sizes solutions to meet not only the needs of our customers today, but also takes into account their needs over the life of the array. We love to share the mathematics behind the configuration and encourage customers. Remember when they told us in school that math would matter, well it does! Storage arrays are the core of our virtualized infrastructures and sizing is about both capacity and performance.

11 8 What RAID Configuration is Being Utilized? It is important that customers understand the RAID configuration being quoted by a manufacturer and how that matches up to the manufacturer s best practices and common implementations. IP Pathways has seen examples where a quote utilized a RAID 5 configuration, but the manufacturer s documented best practices and common implementations utilize a RAID 10 configuration. A RAID 10 configuration would require 2X s the disk of a RAID 5 configuration. That means double the disk cost, if the platform has the scaling options to add that disk. It could mean expensive upgrades to new, more powerful or dense arrays. Most customers require more resiliency than RAID 5 configurations provide, but many customer quotes seem to be based on RAID 5 configurations and pricing. NetApp utilizes RAID-DP technology which provides for dual-parity protection meaning a customer can withstand a dual disk failure and continue to operate. RAID-DP is both the recommended configuration and the common implementation configuration. It provides the performance and protection of RAID 10 but at a fraction of the cost. 11

12 9 What Other Bolt-On Solutions May Be Required? Many storage manufacturers require additional bolt-on hardware and software solutions to meet customer needs. Many platforms do not include data deduplication, data protection or business continuity solutions native to the solution and require the purchase of additional add-ons to achieve storage efficiency. These solutions may appear to be less expensive upfront, but once the various bolt-on solutions are added, the price may increase dramatically. These bolt-on solutions may also add complexity and management overhead, so the options must be understood. NetApp includes unified storage, storage efficiency, data protection and business continuity solutions in their FAS arrays by purchasing the Complete Bundle. There are no expensive or complex hardware or software bolt-on solutions required and all these features are built on top of the #1 Storage OS. This means there is no additional management overhead required and customers only have to learn one management solution. OMAHA KAN

13 10 What are the Options for Local Support? IT hardware and software manufacturers rarely sell directly to customers; rather they sell through authorized resellers. These resellers are leveraged to perform the pre-sales engineering and design as well as the post-sales support. The manufacturer normally provides warranty services such as replacing a failed hard drive, but issues regarding the integration with other hardware and software to form a complete solution is left up to resellers or integrators. National resellers typically have centralized engineering support that works remotely. Most do not have local engineers to assist in either the pre-sales or post-sales engineering. It is important to understand what the support options are and where those engineering resources are located. Telephone and remote support may work for some customers while others may feel more comfortable and secure with local engineering support. IP Pathways is a local valued added reseller of NetApp Unified Storage FAS Arrays. The company employs over ten NetApp certified engineers and has local pre-sales and post-sales engineering in Des Moines, Omaha and Kansas City. IP Pathways has earned a Platinum level partner designation and has the advanced certification, engineers and training to meet that partner level. Additionally, NetApp s co-founder, Dave Hitz, awarded IP Pathways the NetApp Leader in Storage Efficiency in SAS CITY DES MOINES 13

14 Why IP Pathways Chooses NetApp NetApp is the Swiss Army Knife of data storage. A Swiss Army Knife has tools for many jobs and was created with many tasks in mind. Most storage platforms have different operating systems for different storage functions (SAN/NAS); lack multiple scaling options; do not have an always on, always available design that enables non-disruptive operations; require bolton products for important features such as data protection and unit-to-unit replication; and have limited options for reducing the data footprint through deduplication. NetApp is the swiss army knife of storage because they have tools and solutions for all of these. When you make an investment in NetApp, you are not only investing in what you need today, you are also protecting that investment. NetApp unified storage arrays are all built on NetApp s proprietary OS, Data ONTAP. Data ONTAP is NetApp s single operating system and it spans all filers, from smallest to largest. This means the features available on the largest filers are also available on the smallest. This approach and dedication to continual innovation has made Data ONTAP the #1 Storage OS in data storage today. NetApp allows customers to grow up by adding disk and upgrading controllers or to grow out by adding complete filers into a cluster. Customers rarely throw away a previous investment and like to grow in a manner that best suits their unique needs and requirements. Data ONTAP also includes storage efficiency features such as block-level deduplication that spans both SAN and NAS functions, thin provisioning, compression, snapshots and zero-penalty cloning. Simply put, IP Pathways believes in NetApp and has built a business around next generation data center infrastructures built for virtualization, with NetApp storage at the core.

15 About IP Pathways IP Pathways, Leading the Data Center Revolution, provides solutions that help customers modernize their data center infrastructures through virtualization; embrace mobility by delivering desktops, applications and data to any device, anywhere and at any time; optimize Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Exchange and Lync; protect their data and implement business continuity strategies. The company s goal is to have happy customers, happy manufacturing partners and happy employees. IP Pathways strategy is to architect and implement private cloud solutions that allow customers AWARD WINNING ENGINEERING Experience Excellence Contact Us! General Contact sales@ippathways.com to leverage their existing IT infrastructure investments while embracing next generation virtualized data center technologies. Des Moines Office rd St. Urbandale, IA IP Pathways lives in the data center and specializes in the following areas of the IT environment: Data Storage, Server & Desktop Virtualization, Wired and Wireless Networking, Microsoft, Data Protection and Business Continuity of IT Systems. IP Pathways represents leading Tier 1 manufacturers of IT hardware and software such as VMware, NetApp and Cisco, Omaha Office 6410 S 118th St. Omaha, NE Kansas City Office 9393 W 110th St. Suite 500 Overland Park, KS focuses on FlexPod for VMware cloud infrastructures and is a leading exert in VMware server and desktop virtualization solutions. 15

16 THREE industry leaders, ONE shared infrastructure: FlexPod for IP Pathways has received a few honorable recognitions which include being named to the Tech Elite 250 list in 2012 & 2013, ranking No. 16 & 19 by Everything Channel on the CRN Fast Growth 100 list in 2011 & 2012, receiving 2011 Best Virtualization Practice Award from CRN, receiving the Excellence in Storage Efficiency Adoption Award from NetApp Insight 2011 and recognized as the 760th Fastest Growing Private Company on the Inc list in 2012.