MERIT TS

• Storage Consolidation
• The MERIT TS Solution
• Compelling Advantages of the Consolidated Approach
• Why MERIT TS

Storage requirements are growing at the rate of between 40% and 50% a year and to cope with increasing volumes, organisations worldwide are looking at consolidating their storage resources. The ideal place to start is to centralise data storage, because this will provide a single point of access to stored data, with all the security, reliability, redundancy, scalability and ease of administration that is not possible with distributed storage. The problems associated with distributed storage: Over the years, servers have proliferated in departments across organisations, often housing multiple applications and storing specific data relating to these. For example departmental servers are often used to house file, print, database, web, and messaging applications, and these and their related data are all lumped together on one unit. This makes it difficult to upgrade any one element without affecting all the others. In other cases, separate servers are used to house standalone applications. Where some servers are vastly underutilised, others are overloaded and it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep track of and manage this situation or to map out drive usage and organise the sharing of excess capacity. Industry analysts estimate that on average only 30% of corporate data storage capacity is being utilised. With distributed data storage, there is limited control over company data, storage administration and capacity management is cumbersome, and many departmental servers lack the ability to replicate data for high-availability or disaster recovery. Reliability is another problem, because high-availability server capabilities are costly and many departmental servers are little more than desktop PCs. When a departmental server becomes overloaded a new server is typically purchased because it is difficult to find compatible higher-capacity disk drives or higher performance processors to upgrade older models. From a backup perspective, data is typically backed up to direct-attached tape devices, which are attached to each server, making recovery cumbersome, and the responsibility of storing the backups is handled at a departmental level. As a result, backups are cumbersome to control and manage and tapes are difficult to locate and retrieve. Data recovery is limited to restoring from tapes, it takes hours to restore the data and there is a risk that the tape backups will not work. Increasingly stringent legislation on the storage and recovery of data and corporate governance requirements are forcing companies to take a long hard look at how they are securing corporate data.

The ideal way to optimise the use of data storage capacity is to create an environment where all departmental servers can be housed centrally. At the same time, a storage pool is created were all the company data can be stored, managed and controlled centrally. A high-speed storage network would be implemented to connect the servers directly to the storage network. The storage network is created as a dual fabric storage network to provide optimum reliability, faster access and data traffic load balancing. This centralised environment will provide the core infrastructure for high availability and disaster recovery of enterprise systems. The applications and the data files are stored in the storage network and the servers house only the operating system, instead of everything running on the server. In this environment, multiple servers can be linked to single disk storage device in a many-to-one or one-to-many configuration. From a backup perspective, once all the data is pooled, it can be replicated to create an on-line, real-time, mirror image of the operational data, which is stored separately on the storage device. The mirrored data can then be taken off-line, at any time, and a point-in-time copy backed up to a tape device, which would ideally be stored in a tape library resource that is attached to the storage network. A further good option is to create a duplicate off-site business continuance environment, where a second mirror image of the data can be replicated to disk and stored in a pooled resource. Once the backup process is completed, the real-time status of the local mirrored data storage resource would be re-instated. Automatic synchronisation would then take place between the mirrored data and the operational storage pool, updating any changes that have happened in the interim. The off-site snapshot of the local stored data would be copied across on-line, typically, in a 24-hourly cycle. The local and remote mirrored copies of the data would, in turn, be periodically backed up to tape and stored in the respective tape libraries. Backup devices can be shared by a number of servers, which are directly attached to the storage network. This in turn would facilitate the consolidation of backups onto fewer tape devices, resulting in more efficient utilisation of these devices. Data files and entire disks of data can be copied and backups carried out at any time without any adverse impact on the performance of the LAN. The MERIT TS solution would include a revamp of backup policies and procedures.

The consolidated storage approach enables storage to be managed and controlled in a central environment, providing data redundancy, greater systems reliability and more efficient utilisation of data storage capacity. In addition, it will allow on-line configuration and dynamic allocation of storage capacity. The storage network provides the core infrastructure required for high availability of applications and data. The pooled storage approach also provides the opportunity to standardise on tape devices, software and tape media formats, because the centralised tape library is managed and controlled in a disciplined environment, and the use of tape media capacity can be pushed to the limit. It provides a platform on which to recover from system and software failures, human error and disasters, in a faster, more efficient on-line mode. It also allows for better utilisation of tape media devices and cuts down on training requirements and human resources. Dynamic allocation of storage capacity is also made possible and point-in-time data replication techniques are provided to accommodate many different requirements. For example, specific files or an entire database can be copied from the operational system environment into an allocated area in the storage pool for simulation purposes -such as testing out a new project, report generation, and data warehousing. While storage consolidation requires a substantial initial outlay, where economies of scale apply - in terms of user numbers and application volumes, significant cost of ownership benefits can be achieved once the storage area network environment is fully deployed. These cost benefits are manifested through greater efficiencies, the ease of upgrading servers and storage and the lowering of the risk of backup and restore failure.

The MERIT TS team will take a fresh look at a company's environment and identify areas of possible improvement and all findings would be documented. We would identify business and technology problems and work with the customer's IT department to solve existing problems and come up with a storage consolidation solution that will meet the current and future business requirements and budget. We will help the customer to source the right products and oversee the implementation of a solution. MERIT TS can also source, implement and maintain a total solution if required. The implementation would be done in the form of projects and sub-projects to ensure minimal disruption of the business. We will define the strategic scope of the project, draw up a user requirement specification and come up with a high-level design of the storage consolidation solution. Our team will carry out an audit of existing storage and backup processes and help implement improvements to ensure the continued integrity of data. Conversion from the old media to the new media can also be accommodated. As product independent consultants, we will assist with the procurement process, which would include analysing possible solutions and carrying out product comparisons on the customer's behalf, and we will assist with the tender documentation and adjudication. Our team has gathered a vast store of knowledge, expertise and experience from implementing this type of solution in many different complex enterprise environments and our methodology has a proven track record. The MERIT TS value proposition is low risk, because we define the deliverables of each project and sub-project beforehand in a documented form and we undertake to transfer the required skills and expertise to the customer's staff. We have had exposure to all the major storage network and backup product suppliers such as IBM, EMC, NetApp, HDS, HP, Adic, and Brocade, but at the same time we remain product neutral. We design and oversee the implementation of storage consolidation solutions for both the NT and Unix environments.