IBM builds High-Performance SAN to Deliver Managed Backup Services

IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency Services (BCRS) team helps clients protect their mission-critical information and maintain continuous business operations, with help from Cisco MDS solutions and Cisco Services.

Business Continuance describes the processes, procedures and technology solutions an organization puts in place to ensure that essential business functions can continue after a disruption. A good business continuance plan consists of risk analysis, contingency planning, and a disaster recovery plan that includes technology solutions to address recovery and data protection needs of business-critical applications. The cost of outage, whether due to natural disasters, power failure, or malicious acts, is usually in tens of thousands of dollars to Millions, depending upon the nature of the business.

Recently, IBM BCRS in the United Kingdom engaged with a new operating entity of a world-leading financial services organization, to ensure that the organization’s business data was backed up and preserved in the event of a disruption. The client chose IBM Managed Backup offerings. To support the customer requirements, IBM had to build the SAN infrastructure from the ground up, it teamed with Cisco to create and implement a dedicated, large-scale, best-of-class enterprise SAN solution.

The client’s primary need was to establish a backup infrastructure and processes for maximum resiliency.  The client organization has more than a petabyte of data now and expects storage needs to increase by 500 TB year over year. Hence scalability was a huge concern.  The SAN switching core must be able to easily accommodate growth and maintain high performance.
Business Challenge faced by the client is summarized here

• Deliver high-quality managed backup services for new operating entity of world-leading client
• Build in high scalability to meet future demands
• Deploy new large-scale SAN on time

Network Solution
The new SAN design spanned across two locations connect by DWDM links ( see network diagram below).  For the SAN core, IBM chose Cisco MDS 9513 Multilayer Directors—high-performance, multi-protocol, director-class. For edge switches, IBM chose Cisco MDS 9148 Multilayer Fabric Switches. This high-performance, flexible platforms deliver the industry’s highest port density and lowest power consumption available in a compact one rack-unit (1RU) chassis form factor.
The two locations are connected using 4x8-Gbps dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) links. Fibre Channel traffic is extended over those links. Edge switches are connected to the core with 4x8-Gbps Fibre Channel links.  For backup, the IBM TS3500 Tape Library connects directly to the Cisco MDS 9513 switches using 8-Gbps links. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager provides backup services, and the servers connect to the fabrics through Cisco MDS 9148 switches.

Total storage capacity for the production environment is approximately 875 TB, while capacity in the backup environment is 750 TB. This architecture now provides comprehensive backup capabilities across sites for maximum resiliency.
The whole infrastructure is managed by Cisco Prime Data Center Network Manager (DCNM).  The customer liked Cisco DCNM because it’s a best-of-breed solution and easy to learn.  According to Jamie Levett, Lead Infrastructure Architect “This feature is critical because the IBM BRCS SAN management team is centralized offshore, and it needed to be able to quickly learn and manage the new SAN.”
Business Results

• Implemented large-scale SAN that meets IBM client’s bandwidth and availability requirements
• Achieved smooth, on-time implementation
• Gained outstanding education for engineers and offshore SAN management and operations teams

“Implementation ran smoothly with outstanding support from Cisco. Besides building and configuring the deployment, Cisco delivered superb education to our engineering, SAN management, and operations teams. Together, IBM and Cisco operated as one team to get the right solution implemented on time.”  Jamie Levett Lead Infrastructure Architect, IBM Business Continuity and Resilience Services. Levett notes that the education and knowledge transfer gained from this implementation will be invaluable in helping secure future client engagements.

Summary
Cisco along with IBM provides products and technologies that help ensure high availability, reliability, and security for building scalable storage networks and allow optimized distance extension over regional, metro, and long-distance optical and IP networks.
Cisco has made a strong investment in the SAN product portfolio to meet performance, reliability, scalability, and flexibility requirements for the decade ahead.  Cisco, last year introduced the first two members of its 16G fibre channel family- Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director and MDS 9250i MultiServices Switch. Cisco  also provides a complete end-to-end unified data center fabric  that is powered by the same NX-OS operating system across its award-winning product line–Cisco Nexus® for data center Ethernet networking, Cisco MDS for storage networking, and Cisco UCS® for compute.

MDS product info : www.cisco.com/go/mds    and  Full case study – PDF

By
RahiSystems.com (Infrastructure Life Cycle Management)

Structure Cabling

Are you finding it difficult to co-ordinate and establish a proper communication channel between various branches of your business establishment? An organization having different branches worldwide is a common feature and so are companies with a huge number of employees and numerous departments. Making the office boy hop from department to department is an age-old method of communication. In these times of internet, voice chat, and several online communicators, this is a very inefficient way of communication.

Organizations have printers, scanners, faxes, computers, etc. that must be well-connected for an efficient networking system among various departments. An improper networking system would obviously wreak havoc in the organization. Installing unique and good quality data cables ensure long-lasting and smooth network system in every kind of business enterprise.

One of most economical, effective and modern solution to the networking system is structured cabling which in these times of advanced technology is fast gaining importance. Firms and establishments providing customized cabling services are numerous. Similarly, specialists in the manufacturing section are also numerous.

Firms installing structured cabling systems have experienced and dedicated group of engineers. They study the architecture and placement of the establishment, the infrastructure and spacing. Following this, they decide on the best-suited cable based on the infrastructure and then plan and design the cabling system as per the specific needs of the business. Mostly all firms are specializing in needs such as phone wiring, Ethernet network cabling, and premise wiring for a secure and uninterrupted flow of information and data. These services are affordable and sustainable. In addition, they are dynamic and hence they can be easily adapted to the changes that your business often experiences. They are easily scalable and can be updated based on the organization expansion and growth.

Taking into view the growth in demand as well as need of a structured cabling system, both companies and firms have set down a few guidelines following thorough research on the same. Some of them can be summarized as:

• Telco grade high quality wiring for jacks, network wiring and patch panels.

• Fiber cable for long distance interactions and calls which can be easily switched to multi-mode and single-mode without any interference.

• Ethernet network cabling for small offices, call centers, data centers, ware houses and office buildings.

Firms offering unique, high quality network cables that are durable and long-lasting are numerous. They offer flexible structure cabling solutions that can be easily adjusted in case of re-locations or department changes. This enables smooth work-flow without ‘shifting’ disruptions. An efficient networking system also speeds up data transfer and reduces unnecessary costs immensely.

Green Data Center Power Management Solutions - RahiSystems

In recent times, with environmental issues garnering attention, data centers are attempting to go greener by using renewable resources and reducing the amount of energy used by them. Operators have some of the most innovative data center power management solution to tackle the issues. While for some of the big data centers that have global presence, tackling environmental issues are a part of their business models. It is vital for the perception of their brand as they are looked upon as people doing their utmost to save the environment. In many cases, being green is looked upon as a necessity than as a major selling point.

Why is a Green Solution Necessary?

It is natural that the data demands grow rapidly. This is perhaps one of the main reasons why data storage green solutions have become a necessity. It accounts for 0.3% of the total gas emissions. However, concepts like cloud computing have increased the need to store these data on servers. Some of the latest innovations in green data center management solutions are:

Renewable Energy Resources

Data centers cannot avoid consuming the amount of energy they usually consume despite of all the energy efficient measures taken. Servers consume a great amount of energy and hence, operators prefer using renewable resources of energy. While some large organizations source their own renewable energy, others have partnerships with renewable energy suppliers. It is rumoured that one of the largest data center company has a building dedicated towards solar power next to their North Carolina center so that the center is sustainable and self-sufficient in energy consumption. Another company of global recognition has a hydroelectric dam near its center located in Sweden to fulfill its energy requirements and a little more than that. 

Cooling Techniques

One of the biggest challenges faced by data centers is cooling their centers efficiently. Traditional methods like chillers, refrigerator units, etc. consume tremendous amount of energy apart from the core IT equipments. This spells a lot on the economy as well as the environment. Therefore, operators are looking and opting for energy efficient ways for cooling solutions. Some organizations are building their centers near the Arctic Circle so that they can keep their center cool using the atmospheric air. Another method is to pump recycled water through the entire center in order to dissipate the heat. Some of them have taken the local sustainable water source such as sea water or canal water and purified them to the level that is needed for cooling purposes. 

Recycling Energy

While there is energy efficient ways to keep the data center cool, there is a lot of interest in the amount of heat generated. Studies are being conducted on recycling the heat for warming the surrounding buildings. Although at present, the heat is used to warm the buildings within the campus, in time, mini-server farms could be installed in homes around the locality. However, operators must find a suitable solution to tackle the security and safety issues.

As the demand for data center power management solutions continue to increase by leaps and bounds, the pressure is mounting on all sides for cleaner, greener and safer environment for peaceful man and nature co-existence.

Rahisystems.Com

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