How medical device companies can improve logistics operation
COMPANIES IMPROVE DATA PROTECTION AND MORE WITH …
12
Copyrightã Taneja Group, Inc. 2017. All Rights Reserved. 1 of 12 87 Elm Street, Suite 900 Hopkinton, MA01748 T: 508.435.2556 F: 508.435.2557 www.tanejagroup.com CUSTOMER VALIDATION FIELD REPORT COMPANIES IMPROVE DATA PROTECTION AND MORE WITH COHESITY APRIL 2017 We talked to six companies that have implemented Cohesity DataProtect and/or the Cohesity DataPlatform. When these companies evaluated Cohesity, their highest priority was reducing storage costs and improving data protection. To truly modernize their secondary storage infrastructure, they also recognized the importance of having a scalable, all-in-one solution that could both consolidate and better manage their entire secondary data environment. Prior to implementing Cohesity, many of the companies we interviewed had significant challenges with the high cost of their secondary storage. Several factors contributed to the high costs including the need to license multiple products, inadequate storage reduction, the need for professional services and extensive training, difficulty scaling and maintaining systems and adding capacity to expensive primary storage for lower-performance services, such as group file shares. In addition to lower storage costs, all the companies we talked to also wanted a better data protection solution. Many companies were struggling with slow backup speeds, insufficient recovery times and cumbersome data archival methods. Solution complexity and high operational overhead was also a major issue. To address these issues, companies wanted a unified data protection solution that offered better backup performance, instant data recovery, simplified management, and seamless cloud integration for long-term data retention. Companies also wanted to improve overall secondary storage management and they shared a common goal of combining secondary storage workloads under one roof. Depending on their environment and their operational needs, their objectives outside of data protection included providing self-service access to copies of production data for on-demand environments (such as test/dev), using secondary storage for file services and leveraging indexing and advanced search and analytics to find out-of-place confidential data and ensure data compliance. Cohesity customers found that the key to addressing these challenges and needs is Cohesity’s Hyperconverged Secondary Storage. Cohesity is a pioneer of Hyperconverged Secondary Storage, a new category of secondary storage based on a webscale, distributed file system that scales linearly and provides global data deduplication and automatic indexing as well as advanced search and analytics and policy-based management of all secondary storage workloads. These capabilities combine to provide a single system that efficiently stores, manages, and understands all data copies and workflows residing in a secondary storage environment – whether the data is on-premises or in the cloud. There are no point products, therefore less complexity and lower licensing costs. It’s a compelling value proposition, and importantly, every company we talked to stated that Cohesity has met and exceeded their expectations and has helped them rapidly evolve their data protection and overall secondary data management. To learn about each customer’s journey, we examined their business needs, their data center environment, their key challenges, the reasons they chose Cohesity, and the value they have derived. Read on to learn more about their experience.
Transcript of COMPANIES IMPROVE DATA PROTECTION AND MORE WITH …
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 1of1287ElmStreet,Suite900 Hopkinton,MA01748 T:508.435.2556 F:508.435.2557 www.tanejagroup.com
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
COMPANIESIMPROVEDATAPROTECTIONANDMOREWITHCOHESITY
APRIL2017
WetalkedtosixcompaniesthathaveimplementedCohesityDataProtectand/orthe Cohesity DataPlatform. When these companies evaluated Cohesity, theirhighest prioritywas reducing storage costs and improving data protection. Totrulymodernizetheirsecondarystorageinfrastructure,theyalsorecognizedtheimportanceofhavingascalable,all-in-onesolutionthatcouldbothconsolidateandbettermanagetheirentiresecondarydataenvironment.
PriortoimplementingCohesity,manyofthecompaniesweinterviewedhadsignificantchallengeswiththehighcostoftheirsecondarystorage.Severalfactorscontributedtothehighcostsincludingthe need to license multiple products, inadequate storage reduction, the need for professionalservicesandextensive training,difficultyscalingandmaintainingsystemsandaddingcapacity toexpensiveprimarystorageforlower-performanceservices,suchasgroupfileshares.
Inadditiontolowerstoragecosts,allthecompanieswetalkedtoalsowantedabetterdataprotectionsolution.Manycompanieswerestrugglingwithslowbackupspeeds,insufficientrecoverytimesandcumbersomedataarchivalmethods.Solutioncomplexityandhighoperationaloverheadwasalsoamajor issue. To address these issues, companies wanted a unified data protection solution thatoffered better backup performance, instant data recovery, simplifiedmanagement, and seamlesscloudintegrationforlong-termdataretention.
Companies also wanted to improve overall secondary storage management and they shared acommon goal of combining secondary storage workloads under one roof. Depending on theirenvironment and their operational needs, their objectives outside of data protection includedproviding self-service access to copies of production data for on-demand environments (such astest/dev),usingsecondarystorageforfileservicesandleveragingindexingandadvancedsearchandanalyticstofindout-of-placeconfidentialdataandensuredatacompliance.
Cohesity customers found that the key to addressing these challenges and needs is Cohesity’sHyperconvergedSecondaryStorage.CohesityisapioneerofHyperconvergedSecondaryStorage,anewcategoryofsecondarystoragebasedonawebscale,distributedfilesystemthatscaleslinearlyand provides global data deduplication and automatic indexing as well as advanced search andanalytics and policy-based management of all secondary storage workloads. These capabilitiescombinetoprovideasinglesystemthatefficientlystores,manages,andunderstandsalldatacopiesandworkflowsresidinginasecondarystorageenvironment–whetherthedataison-premisesorinthecloud.Therearenopointproducts,thereforelesscomplexityandlowerlicensingcosts.
It’sacompellingvalueproposition,andimportantly,everycompanywetalkedtostatedthatCohesityhasmetandexceededtheirexpectationsandhashelpedthemrapidlyevolvetheirdataprotectionandoverallsecondarydatamanagement.Tolearnabouteachcustomer’sjourney,weexaminedtheirbusinessneeds,theirdatacenterenvironment,theirkeychallenges,thereasonstheychoseCohesity,andthevaluetheyhavederived.Readontolearnmoreabouttheirexperience.
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 2of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
MAJORVALUECUSTOMERSREALIZEDWITHCOHESITYCohesity customerswe interviewedconsistently toldus their traditional storagesystemsweren’tmeetingtheirdataprotectionandoverallsecondarydatamanagementneeds.Theysaidtheyneededsimplerandfasterdatabackupandrecovery,moreefficientandcost-effectivedataretention,betteroveralldatavisibilityandself-serviceaccesstocopiesofproductiondatabases.
Toachievethesedataprotectionandsecondarystorageimprovements,companiesrecognizedtheyrequiredanewsecondarystorageapproach.Theywantedasecondarystorageanddataprotectionsolutionarchitected from thegroundup tobe simple, scalable, and flexible.They foundCohesityDataProtectandtheCohesityDataPlatformtobethegamechangingsolutionstheywerelookingfor.CohesityDataProtectandtheCohesityDataPlatformleverageahyperconvergedsecondarystoragearchitecturethatenabledthemtobothtransformtheirdataprotectionandconsolidatesecondarydataworkloads.BelowaresevenareaswherecompaniesweinterviewedrealizedsignificantvaluewithCohesity.
• Cost savings. Cost savings was the number one reason customers switched to Cohesity.Customersrealizedsavingsinthreeareas:lowerlicensingcosts,betterdatareductionratios,andtheabilitytomovefileservicesoffhighercostprimarystoragesystems.Companiesalsorealizedsignificantoperationalsavingswithfasterbackups,substantialreductioninbackupandrecoveryadministrationtimeandeliminatingthecostandhassleoftapearchival.
• Simplifiedmanagement.Cohesitycustomerstalkedaboutthevalueofhavinganall-in-oneso-lutionthatmakesiteasytocreatedataprotectionpolicies,quicklyrecoverdata,andintelligentlymigratedatatothecloudforlongtermdataretention.CustomersalsocitedCohesity’sautomaticmetadataindexingandthepat-tern matching that makes iteasy to quickly locate specificfiles and find data that is non-compliant.
• Easy to scale and maintain.Whentheyneededtoexpandtheirsystem,customersfoundCohesity’shyperconvergedarchitec-turemadegrowingthesystemeasy,becauseeachnodeinaclusterisself-sufficientwithitsowncompute,memory,andstorage.CustomersalsotoldusCohesity’sarchitecturesimplifiessystemupgradesandrecoveryfromnodefailures,becausethere’snodisruption,nomanualconfigura-tion,andnoneedfordatamigration.
• Data efficiency. Many customersfoundthatCohesity’sglobaldeduplica-tionmaximizesbackupdatareductionand they like the fact that separatededuplication appliances are not re-quired, because it reduces solutioncomplexity.
• Fastbackupsandrecovery.MultiplecustomersstatedthatCohesity’sbackupspeedisarealplus.Cohesitydoesn’trequireweeklyfullbackupsandfor critical backup workloads,theycanleverageparalleldata ingest and set policies that leverage Cohesity’s SSD tier and optional post-process (vs. inline) deduplication to increase performance. Another feature customershighlyvalueisrapidrecovery.WithCohesity,companiescanrecoverafailedVMfromacloneofthebackupVMandruntheVMdirectlyontheCohesityplatformwhilethedataisstillrestoring.Thiscapabilityprovidesfastaccesstocriticaldatawithinminutes.
“Wededuped200TBdownto50TB,25%of itsoriginalsize. Cohesity offers a larger cluster backup, but wehaven’tneededitbecauseofits incredibleefficiency.”(DirectorofSecurity&NetworkServices,LawFirm)
“Ijustcan’tsayenoughabouttheease-of-useandthesimpleadministration.WhatI likethemost iswegetthesimplicitywithoutsacrificingfunctionality.”(EdKrupka,BurrisLogistics)
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 3of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
• Cloudenablement.Cloud-basedstorageisa central part of their data protectionstrategy.Somecompanieswereusingtapefor data archival and with Cohesity theymoved to simpler andmore cost-effectivedataretentioninthecloud.
• Data workflow consolidation. Loweringstoragecostsand/orimprovingdataprotectionwastheinitialdriverforallthecompaniesweinterviewed,buttheyquickly foundCohesityoffersmuchmore.CompaniesuseCohesity’s fileservicescapabilityforNFSandSMBfilesharesandtheyalsoleverageCohesity’sRESTfulAPItoenableDBAsandotherauthorizeduserstoquicklyspin-up,refresh,restoreandremovevirtualcopiesofproductiondatausingtoolsandapplicationstheyarefamiliarwith.
ARCHITECTURALOVERVIEWThe foundation for Cohesity’s Hyperconverged Secondary Storage is their DataPlatform, adistributed, infinite scale-out file system that is targeted at secondary data workloads. TheDataPlatformrunsonCohesity’sHyperconvergedNodes,consistingof2Urackmountboxescalledblocks.Each2UblockcanhostuptofourCohesityNodes,eachofwhichhasitsowncomputeandstorage. The storage component consistsof both HDDs and Flash for highperformance ingest and accelerated fileservices due to retention of frequentlyaccessed blocks in Flash. Nodes areconnectedviadual10GbEthernetports.Aminimum of three Nodes are required toformaCohesityClusterandclusterscanbeexpandedtoanysizeneededbyaddingoneormoreadditionalNodes.
NodessharenothingandtherearenoinherentbottlenecksinthedistributedhardwarearchitecturethatCohesityhasimplemented,sobothcapacityandperformancescalelinearlyasNodesareadded.In addition, Cohesity’s hyperconverged architecturemakes itmuch easier to grow the system asbackupneedsgrowortoreplaceanoteifthere’safailure.Theadministratorsimplypopsinanothernode,there’snodisruption,noneedfordatamigration,andnomanualconfiguration.
The base layer of the DataPlatform containsthefilesystem,whichisstructuredtobefullydistributedandinfinitelyscalable.Itconsistsof a set of services: a Cohesity-designedCluster Manager that’s responsible for allCohesityClustercoreservices;anI/Oenginethathandlesallclusterreadsandwrites;afilesystemmetadatastore,whichisanindexingenginethatscansandcollectsinformationaboutalldataplacedinacluster;andalimitlesssnapshotfacilitybasedonCohesity’spatentedandhighlyefficientSnapTreetechnology.
LayeredontopofthefilesystemisastorageserviceslayerthatprovidesinterfacesforusebythesecondarystorageworkflowssuchasCohesityAnalytics,CohesityTest/Dev,CohesityFileServicesand, most significantly, Cohesity DataProtect. This layer provides global, variable-length, user-configurabledatadeduplication;distributedSMBandNFSprotocols;S3objectprotocol;integratedGoogle-like global search capability; site-to-site replication; and AES 256-bit FIPS-compatibleencryptionwith hardware acceleration. Finally, this layer iswhere Cohesity integrateswith thepubliccloud-AmazonS3andGlacier,MicrosoftAzure,andGoogleCloudPlatform.
“CohesityisliketheGooglefilesystem.It’sveryeasytoaddnodesbecauseit’sbuilttoscale-outthatway.”(EirikToft,XOCommuniations)
“We saved a lot of money with Cohesity byarchivingourdatatoMicrosoftAzureandgettingrid of tape that was expensive and verydisruptive.”(MarlonWenceslao,U.Pennsylvania)
“We saw a tenfold improvement in speed withCohesity.Partofthatwasduetoswitchingfromtapeto disk,which savedus hours perweek on backups.AndeachCohesitynodehasnetworkinterfaces,whichmakes it considerably faster than other disk-basedbackupsystemswelookedat.”(KrisKahl,Genex)
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 4of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
Cohesity’s integrated cloud functionality consists of three policy-based capabilities. CloudArchiveallowsoldsnapshots tobemovedfromon-premisesstorageto thecloud for longtermretention.CloudTierimprovesstorageefficiencybymovingcolddatablocksintotheclouduntilitsaccessedagain, at which point it’s automatically moved back on-premises. CloudReplicate copies localsnapshotstoacloud-basedCohesityClusterforoffsitedataprotectionanddisasterrecoveryinthecloud.Inallthreecases,datainthecloudisindexedforfastsearchandretrievalanditisencryptedbothin-flightandat-rest.
Thenext layerup is theApplicationLayer,wherehigher level servicesneededby the integratedsecondary storageworkflows are provided. These are services such as scheduling, data archival,cloning, and policy management. This layer is also where the secondary storage workflowsthemselves reside –Analytics, Test/Dev, File Services and, most significantly, DataProtect -– acompletebackupandrecoverysolutionthatistightlyintegratedwiththeDataPlatform.DataProtectuses the globally de-duplicated, scale-out storage that eliminates the need for separate backupserversandsoftware.ItsupportsinstantaneousRTOsandenablesRPOsoflessthan15minutesandintegratesseamlesslywithVMwareandallmajorcloudvendors,providingasubstantialdecreaseindataprotectioncostsandcomplexity.
A very interesting and important feature of the Cohesity platform also resides in this topmostApplicationlayer–-theAnalyticsWorkbench.Thisisanopenapplicationframework,includinganSDK,thatallowsusersand3rdpartiestocreatecustomanalyticsmodulesandrunthemalongsidethenativeCohesityAnalytics,greatlyexpandingtheutilityoftheDataPlatform.
REPORTSFROMTHEFIELDInthefollowingcustomerreports,sixCohesitycustomerssharetheirsecondarystoragechallenges,thereasonstheyselectedCohesityandthemajorbenefitstheyrealizedwhentheymovedtoCohesityhyperconverged secondary storage, which include lower storage costs, simplified management,betterdataprotectionperformance,integratedcloudstorage,andscalability.
SummaryofCohesityCustomersInterviewed
Company XOComm. LawFirm Univ.ofPennsylvania
GenexServices
OnlineRetailer
BurrisLogistics
PersonInterviewed
SystemsEngineer
DirectorSecurity&NetworkServices
Sr.SystemsMgr.of
Systems&InfrastructureServices
SystemsMgr./SystemsEngineer
SystemsArchitect
CIO&PresidentofInformationTechnology
Industry Telecom Legal Education Healthcare Ecommerce DistributionTopThreeReasonsCompaniesMadetheSwitchtoCohesity
#1Reason Scalability Globaldedupe BackupSpeed Simplified
management Scalability Value
#2Reason Globaldedupe
Simplifiedmanagement Cloudarchival Scalability Performance Simplicity&
Support
#3Reason Simplifiedmanagement
BetterDataProtection Scalability Easeof
upgradesLowerCost&Cloud Performance
EdKrupka–BurrisLogisticsBurris Logistics is a privately-owned company founded in 1925. The family-owned firm has 17locationsandover1,700employees.Burrisprovidescustomsupplychainsolutionsforcontrolled-temperaturefooddistributionoperations.
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 5of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
EdKrupkaisBurris’ChiefInformationOfficerandPresidentofInformationTechnology.
WHYBURRISCHOSECOHESITYTheprimarydatacenterinDelawarereplicatestoadatacenterinPhiladelphia.TheirlegacyEMCenvironmenthadVMAXandVNXforproductionstorage.RecoverPointwasusedforreplicationandNetWorkerforarchivalbackupstoDataDomains.
TheNetworker/DataDomainintegrationwascomplexanddifficult.Edsaid,“WepaidforseveralserviceengagementstosolveproblemsaroundDataDomainandNetworker.Wedidnotwanttodothatgoingforward.”
AlthoughBurrishasbeenanEMCshopfor20years,integrationproblemsandhighcostsencouragedEdtolookatinnovativedataprotectionplatforms.Hesaid,“Thelightsarealwaysonsomewhereinourenvironmentandbeingdownisnotanoption.Thatwasthedriverforustogooutonalimbandlookatnewstorageplatformsanddataprotection.”
THECOHESITYENVIRONMENTToday theprimarydatacenterhasabout250hostVMsand fewer thanadozenphysical servers.BurrisreplacedproductionEMCwithPureStorageandreplacedDataDomainwithsevenCohesitynodesatjustover150TBcapacity.Theyhaveusedabout77TB.
Costsavingsandefficiencygainshavebeendramatic.Thedatacenterfootprinthasgonefrom3EMCcabinetstoa2UCohesityrack,whichlowerspowerandcoolingcosts.Burrisalsoeliminatedtheneedforprofessionalservicesandtraining.Witheveryrefresh,BurrispaidEMC$250,000forprofessionalservicesplusadditionalexpensefortraining.Cohesity’strainingandserviceschargehasbeenzero,duetoitsmuchsimplertechstackandadramaticimprovementineaseofuse.
DedupehasalsosignificantlyimprovedavailablecapacityoverEMC.DataDomain’sbestdeduperatiowasabout33:1ratioafterthreeyearsofusage.Edsaid,“Wewerepushing100:1withCohesity.Afteringesting the Postgres (PostgreSQL) database, dedupe ratios went to 46:1. That ratio is slowlyincreasingandwearemorethanpleasedwithit.”
DatamigrationstoCohesitywentsmoothlyandwasmucheasierthanmigratingarchiveswithDataDomain.Edsaid,“ItwaseasiergoingfromEMCtoCohesitythanitwasfromEMCtoEMC.”
TOPBENEFITS1. Excellentvalueproposition.Edandhisteamwantedtoreducecostsandincreasevalue.Co-
hesitygavethemaninnovativedataprotectionarchitectureatamuchlessexpensivepurchasepriceandfarmoreoperationalvalue.Edsaid,“Thevalueisamajoradvantageforus.It’snotjustthepurchasecost,althoughCohesityiseasilyhalfofwhatitwascostinguswithEMC;it’salsothesimplicityandthelowercostofoperations.”
2. Simplicity.Duringthisinterview,EdtextedhisinfrastructureadminwithaquestionaboutCo-hesity.Theadmintextedbacktheexactdashboardviewheneeded.“Itwould’vetakenmeaweektogetthatkindoffigureonouroldenvironment,”Edpointedout.Simpleadministrationwithgoodpolicymanagementletsthemholdthelineonemployeeheadcountandupgradeshavegonewellwithnodowntimeormaintenancewindows.“Ijustcan’tsayenoughabouttheease-of-useandthesimpleadministrationandwhatIlikethemostiswegetthesimplicitywith-outsacrificingfunctionality.”
3. BetterPerformance:Ednotedthat“Backupspeedis2-4XfasterthanwhatwewereseeingwithEMCDataDomainandNetworker.”
4. Support.TheyhavenothadanyemergencieswithCohesity.Theycontactedsupportwithsomeinitialconfigurationquestionsandissuesandgotthequickanswerstheyneeded.“It’sbeen
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 6of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
great.Bigvendorshavealotofcapabilitiesandresources,buttheirsupportorganizationsaresohardtogetthrough.IwouldgiveCohesitysupportfiveoutoffivestars.”
WRAP-UP“Theteamcouldnotbemorecomfortableandpleasedwiththeresultsandtheperformanceinourenvironment. AndCohesity is passionate and they are doing some exciting things.We’re lookingforwardtohearingwhat’scomingnext.”
DirectorofSecurityandNetworkServices–LargeLawFirmThislargeU.S.lawfirmhas10remoteofficesthroughoutthecountryandemploys400attorneysand1100totalstaff.
TheDirectorofSecurityandNetworkServicesoverseesthefirm’smainandbackupdatacenters.Bothdatacentersare90%virtualized,andbothhavean8-nodeCohesitycluster.
WHYTHELAWFIRMCHOSECOHESITYThefirminitiallyusedNetBackupinitsMilwaukeedatacenter.ThelegacyenvironmentbackedupExchange,physicalservers,andVMstolocalstorage.TheDirectorpreferredtokeepbackupsfor90daysbuttherewasnotenoughstoragecapacity.Anotherissuewasthetimeittooktobackupseveral15TBVMs.Theyalsowantedtoreplicatetoremotelocationsforimproveddataprotectionandtheywantedaneasywaytodobackupverificationanddisasterrecoverytesting.
TheDirector andhis teambegan looking for other options butmanyof them required installingagentsontheVMs.TheynarrowedtheirshortlisttoCohesityandRubrik.“Cohesitytookhalfthetimetoperformbackups,hesaid,“andCohesitywasstraightforwardandeasiertouse.Ididn’thavetomuckaround.Formethatwaskey.Itwaseasytouserightoutofthebox.”
THECOHESITYENVIRONMENTTheDirectorandhisteaminstalled8-nodeCohesitysystemsinMilwaukeeandintheseconddatacenterinPhoenix.Theybackup500virtualserversinMilwaukeeandreplicatetoPhoenixfordataresiliency.
Globaldeduplicationyieldshighstoragecapacity,whichletsthemeasilystorebackupdatafor90days. Cohesity data retention policies automatically destroy older backups. Although Cohesity ishighlyscalable,theDirectorsaid,“Ninetydaysworksforourbusinessmodel.Wehaveaverydistinctdatadestructionpolicy.”
Databackupandrestoresaremucheasiernow.Inthelegacyenvironment,administratorshadtogotothebackupapplication,logintotheinterface,searchforthebackupjob,followthefolderstructure,andhopefullyfindthefile.Theyfollowedasimilarprocessto locatesnapshots.TheDirectorsaid,“Cohesitybackupschedulingisverystraightforwardandsimple.Wedoasearchandquicklyfindthefilesandchoosetherecoverypoint,it’sthateasy.”
TOPBENEFITS1. Globaldedupe.Deduplicationenabledthefirmtocrunch200TBdownto50TB,25%ofitsorig-
inalsize.“Cohesityoffersalargerclusterbackup,butwehaven’tneededitbecauseofitsincred-ibleefficiency.”
2. Simplifiedmanagement.Backupadminsquicklysearchforfilesorsnapshotsandsetrestorepoints.“BackupExecwasverycomplexanddifficult.Itcouldtakemyadminsalldaytoadminis-ter.Cohesitymakesiteasytomanage,andwe’vegonefromalldaytominutes.Also,beforewehadnogoodwaytodoDRtesting.Nowwedo.”
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 7of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
3. Dataprotection.Cohesitycoversalltheirbackupinonehouratnight.TheDirectorandhisteamcaneasilyverifybackupfromthedashboardandit’sverysimpletorestorefilesorVMs.“AfterwegotCohesity,oneofourserversfailedbig-time.Itblewup.IttookCohesityjustfifteenminutestobringthefailedmachinebackupandmakeitoperational.”
WRAP-UP“We’veseenverysignificantOpExsavingswithsimplifiedadministration.WithNetBackup,thebig15TBserversweretakingthreetofourdays!Nowtheytakeafewminutes.That’sahugedifference.”
EirikToft--XOCommunicationsXOCommunications,recentlyacquiredbyVerizon,ownsandoperatesglobalIPandEthernetnetworksthat provides secure private data networking, cloud connectivity, unified communications, voice,Internetaccess,andmanagedservices.
EirikToftisaSystemsEngineerworkingwithalargeXOclient.Thismajorgovernmententitystoresmassiveamountsofdata,andrequiresrobustdataprotectionwithgeographicredundancy.EirikandhisteamdeployedtwoCohesitydatacenterenvironmentsonoppositecoasts.
WHYXOCHOSECOHESITYWhenXOwonthegovernmententity’sbusiness,theyneededtobuildmultipledatacenterscapableofsupportingintensiveapplicationsandlargedatavolumes.Oneofthecriticalelementswasahighlyscalablestoragesystemthatcouldefficientlystoreandmanagemassiveamountsofdata.TheyownedEMCstorageandwereinterestedinIsilon,butitshighcostwasaseriousdrawback.
One of Eirik’s peers suggested Cohesity and its innovative hyperconverged architecture. Eirikcontactedthemandtheyofferedwhatheneededatlessthanhalfthepriceoftheotherquote.Hesaid,“Wehadanimmensestoragerequirementandcostwasabigdriver.Cohesity’scostperterabyteofstoragewasfantastic.”
DeploymentwasassimpleasmountinganNFSserver.Cohesitythrottledtheinitialfullbackupsoitdidnotimpactnetworkprocessing.Nowanincrementalbackupofover200VMscompletesinlessthan10minutes,andtheyhavedonesixupgradeswithnodowntime.
Afterthesale,Cohesityfrequentlyintroducednewfeatures.Eiriksaid,“Theyhavecapabilitiesthatwedidn’tevenknowweneeded.Andwhenwerealizedtheyhadthemandsawhowusefultheywere,weadoptedthem.Thisjustvalidatesourpurchaseevenmore.”
THECOHESITYENVIRONMENTToday’sprimaryenvironmentrunsonHPDL580hoststhatisvirtualizedwithVMwarevSphere5.5.Cohesitymounts as a share andbacks up about 200-250VMs at each site. The virtual platformscombineWindowsandLinuxhosts.Therearealsoseveralapplicationtesting labsusingVMsandCohesityforeasyspin-upanddestruction.CohesityautomaticallyassignscorrectbackuppoliciestonewVMs.
TheteamusesCohesitynativefilesearchstorageforfastandefficientsearches.TheyalsoappreciateitsstandupandteardownabilitiesfordynamicVMs.Eiriksaid,“It’skindoffuntowatch.OnceyouremovetheVMfromatestenvironment,you’llseeCohesityteardowntheNFSdatastorefromthehost.Itcleansupafteritself.”
Eirik also uses Cohesity’s scripting support. “I’m writing custom scripts using their API.Implementingextracodeintotheirsystemisveryeasyandveryforgiving,anditpointsoutwhereyoumadeamistake.Itmakescustomizingveryeasy.”
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 8of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
TOPBENEFITS1. Easyscalability.“EMCismonolithicandIhavetoaddrackstoscale.Cohesityisdifferent.It’s
veryeasytoaddnodesbecauseit’sbuilttoscale-outthatway.”
2. Deduplication.Dedupeiscriticalforstoringdata.Inthetestenvironment,Eirikrealizesa5.75:1ratio,and4.74TBofrawphysicalstoragepresentsalmost250TBoflogicalstorage.Theproductionserverbackupislargelylogs,zippedfiles,andSQLdatabases.Eventhoughthisdatadoesnothavemuchrepetitivecontent,XOstillseesadeduperateof2.2:1.
3. Policies.Policy-basedschedulingishighlyefficientandsavesonmanagementtime.Eirikre-marked,“Theretentionpoliciescanbeassimpleorascomplexasyouneedthem,whichisverybeneficial.Ilikethattheredon’tseemtobeanylimitsinthepolicies.AtleastIhaven’thitanyyet.”
4. Support.SupportisskilledandresponsivewhenEirikneedsthem,whichisn’toften.“WehadoneissuewithCohesityandwedidn’tevenknowwehadanissue.Cohesitytoldusaboutitandcameouttofixit.”Cohesityisextremelyopentosuggestionsandrequestsforproductenhance-ments.
WRAP-UP“ItestedtheCohesityenvironmentbydoingeverythingIcouldthinkoftobreakit:pullingcables,turningthemachinesonandoff.Shortofhittinganodewithahammer,therewasnothingIcoulddotodestroyitorscrewitup.”
OnlineRetailerThisonlineretailerisoneofthefastestgrowingecommercesitesintheUnitedStates.Twodatacentersarelocatedontheeastcoastandseveralfulfillmentcentersarespreadacrossthecountry.WespokewiththeSystemArchitectresponsibleforthecompany’svirtualizedinfrastructureincludingcomputeandstorage.
WHYTHECOMPANYCHOSECOHESITYThecompanyusedamajorstoragevendorfordataprotectionandarchival.Thesecondarystoragesystemwasslowandrunningoutofcapacity,sotheSystemArchitectandhisteamresearchednewoptionsforatechnologyrefresh.TheyselectedCohesityforitshighscalability,lowoverallcost,andabilitytoconsolidatesecondarystorageworkloadsunderoneroof.
TheSystemArchitectsaid,“WithCohesity,youconsumeonlywhatyouneednow,andit’sasimplemattertoaddmoreasyougo.Insteadofrefreshingtheothersystemeverytwoyearsandpayingforsurpluscapacityupfront,withCohesitywejustaddnodesasneededonaquarterlybasis.”
THECOHESITYENVIRONMENTTheSystemArchitectandhisteamdeployedtwoCohesity4-clusternodes,oneineachdatacenter.Theywillbeexpandingsoon.ThedatacentersrunbothWindowsandLinuxandare100%virtualizedwithVMware.About50VMwarehostsresideinthedatacentersforproductionandtest/dev,andanother7areinthefulfillmentcenters.
Theclustersareprotectingabout40TBofprimarydatainthemaindatacenter,andabout12TBinthe secondary test/devdata center. Cohesity averages a deduplication ratio of 50:1, a significantimprovementoverthe10:1theyweregettingwiththelegacystoragesystem.
Cohesityenablestheteamtoremotelybackupfromthefulfillmentcenterstoacentralrepository.TheSystemArchitectsaid,“Remotebackupissomethingelsethat’sgreataboutCohesity.Backups
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 9of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
have gone from hours tominutes.” They are using cloud-based archival for cold storage, whereCohesitywritestoIronMountain’sCloud.
Dataprotectionwas their initial driver, but the team found that Cohesity offersmuchmore. TheSystemArchitectsaid,“DataprotectionwasourbigusecasewhenweadoptedCohesity.Wethenbeganexploringitscapabilities,andsawinterestingnewusecases.”TheteamusesCohesity’s fileservicescapabilitytoexposeNFSandSMBfileshares,includinganNFSmountfortheFrozenSplunklogdata.TheyarealsoworkingcloselywithCohesityandVMware tocreatean “easybutton” forDBAs,whichleveragesCohesity’sRESTfulAPItoautomaticallyrefreshandrestorereplicatedvirtualcopiesoftheirMicrosoftSQLdatabase.
TOPBENEFITS1. Highscalability.Theirlegacystoragecouldonlyscalesofarbeforethelimitedcomputeofthe
controllerbecomesaconstraint.“ThisiswhereCohesityhassuchagoodvalueproposition.Youhaveaclusterthatcaneasilyscaleouttoonethousandnodesbecauseeachnodehasitsowncompute,memoryandstorage.”
2. Backupperformance.Adminscanadjustpoliciestooptimizeworkloads.Forexample,apolicyleveragestheCohesitySSDtierandpost-process(vs.inline)deduplicationtoincreasedatain-gestperformance.“Cohesityhasalotofflexibilityandbackupsareveryfast.Before,ourVeeamChangeBlockTracking(CBT)wouldtakeoveranhour.WithCohesityittakeslessthanfiveminutes.”
3. Lowcosts.Thecompanypaidseparatelicensingandmaintenancecostsforstoragehardwareandsoftware.“WithCohesity,wehaveonevendorandonecompetitivelypricedsolutionthatincludeshardwareandsoftware.Thathasmadeabigdifferenceincost.”
4. Cloudenablement.TheteamusesCohesityforcloud-basedarchivalandwritestoIronMoun-tain’sCloudusingacertifiedS3connector.Theyrecentlytestedaclouddatarestoreonavirtualapplicationwith200GBsofarchivedstorage.“Weonlyneededtotransfer5%ofdatatodoafullrecovery.Thisabigplus,becauseweavoidpayingthehighdatatransfercostsyouoftenseewithcloudstorage.”
WRAP-UP“EverytimeyouaddstoragetoCohesity,youalsoaddcompute.Insteadofrunningslowerandslowerandslower,itrunsfasterandfasterandfaster.”
MarlonWenceslao–AnnenbergSchoolforCommunicationattheUniversityofPennsylvaniaAnnenbergisoneoftwelveschoolsattheUniversityofPennsylvania.TheUniversitymaintainsacentralITdepartmentandeachschoolalsohasitsownLSP(LocalSupportProvider).Annenberg’sgraduatestudentsgeneratelargeamountsofcommunicationsresearch,andprojectshavehighcomputeanddatastoragerequirements.
MarlonWenceslaoisSeniorSystemsManagerofSystems&InfrastructureServices.CohesityhyperconvergedsecondarystorageallowstheInfrastructureTeamtoeasilyscalestoragewithoutexpandingVCEVblockprimarystorage.
WHYANNENBERGCHOSECOHESITYThelegacyenvironmentranVeeam,BackupExec,andEqualLogicDellstorage.Veeamstillhadtwoyears on its licensing contract, so Marlon planned to replace the aging physical backup storageinfrastructure.
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 10of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
MarlonfirstlookedseriouslyatDellandExablox.HewasparticularlyinterestedinExablox,butitslackofhyperconvergenceandlargefootprintputhimoff.ThenhelookedatCohesityandRubrik.HelikedwhathesawwithCohesity,theyhadstrongerprotocolsupportincludingsupportforbothNFSandSMB,soheboughtittoreplacethelegacyDellstorage.
THECOHESITYENVIRONMENTOnceVeeamwasbackingupthevirtualenvironmentusingCohesityasaRepository,MarlonagreedtotestCohesity’snativeVMbackupcapability.Thelegacyenvironmenttookalmosttwodaystofinishfullvirtualbackup.Cohesitytookthreehours.Hesaid,“Iwassurprisedathowfastitwas.Itwaseasy,simple,andjustwhatIwaslookingfor.Eventhoughit’sincremental,it’sfullyhydrated.Ididn’texpectCohesitytodothat.”Marlonmoved80%ofbackupsfromVeeamtoCohesity.LaterhephasedoutBackupExecinfavorofCohesityforphysicalserverbackup.
AnnenbergusesVblockSystemstostorehighperformanceprimarydataandfileshares,butscalingisexpensiveanddatacenterspaceislimited.InsteadofgrowingtheVblockfootprint,Marlondecidedtohost file sharesonCohesity.He said, “Wemight aswelluse secondary storage tohost the fileshares. It’s a big footprint advantagewith Cohesity:we don’t have to scale Vblock, and Cohesitydedupe/compression is huge. Cohesity also provides a redundant architecture, so if a node goesdownthedataisstillavailable.Wedidn’thavethatwithVMhostedsharesonVblocksystems.”
Securitycomplianceisanotherimportantbenefit.Annenbergdoesnotallowstudentstosavedatacontainingpersonally identifiable information(PII).AdminsuseCohesityPatternFinderto locatenon-complianttextpatternslikeSocialSecuritynumbers.
Marlonalso likesdynamicallycreatinganddestroyingVMclones.Forexample, ifhiswebadminsneedtoupgradeDrupalorWordPress,Marloneasilycreatesaclonedenvironmentforupgradeandvalidation.Oncehegetsthegreenlight,theyupdatetheliveenvironmentanddestroystheclone.“It’saveryeasytwo-stepprocess.ClonetheVM,thendestroytheVM.That’sit.”
TOPBENEFITS1. Backupspeed.SinceCohesitysnapshotstakeunderasecond,theteamcantakemanysnapshots
withoutimpactingbackupperformance.Thisenablesthemtocreatenumerousrestorepoints.Marlonsaid,“Thelegacyenvironmenttooktwodaystofinishafullvirtualbackup.Cohesitytookonlythreehours.”
2. Cloudarchival.Annenbergkeepsarchivaldataforfiveyears.Theyaremovingforwardwithacloud-firststrategyforarchives,whichreplacesstoringlong-termarchivaltotape.Marlonsaid,“WithCohesitywesavedalotofmoneybyarchivingourdatatoAzureandgettingridoftapethatwasexpensiveandverydisruptive.”AnnenbergalsoplanstouseCohesityforcloud-basedDRinthecomingmonths.
3. Scalability. Marlon appreciates Cohesity’s hyperconverged secondary storage with its smallfootprint,backupspeed,andefficientscalability.“It’sawebscalekindofinfrastructurewhereyoudon’thavetoworryaboutaddingstorageorcomputeordiskdrives.It’sjustamatterofaddinganodeorabox,andyou’regoodtogo.”
4. Easeofmanagement.Marlon’ssmall teamneeded tocutdowntheirmanagementoverhead.Cohesity’spolicy-basedmanagementiskey.“CohesitypoliciesareveryhelpfulandthepoliciesaresimplerthanVeeam.IcanjustusemyiPhonetoconnecttomyCohesityclusteranywheretoupdateapolicyorscheduleabackup.It’sgotgreatflexibilityandarichtoolset.”
WRAP-UP“I’mreallypleasedwithCohesity,howeasilyitdoesbackupandhowfastitdoesrestore.Here’sacaseinpoint.IfIhadtorestoreanolderVMitwouldtakemeatleastfivedaystorecallthetapes,catalog the tape, find the data, and restore VM. With Cohesity it takes just seconds. It’s trulydisruptive.”
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 11of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
KrisKahlandMathewVarughese–GenexServicesGenexServiceswasfoundedin1978asacasemanagementserviceforinjuredemployees.Thecompanyfocusesoncompassionatecasemanagement,whichreduceshealthcareanddisabilityexpensesfortheircustomers.HeadquarteredinWayne,PA,GenexoperatesacrosstheU.S.andCanada.
MathewVarugheseisSeniorSystemsEngineerandKrisKahlisSystemsEngineerchargedwithbackupadministration.
WHYGENEXSERVICESCHOSECOHESITYThirteenbranchofficesuseSymantecNetBackuptobackuptheirserverstothecorporatedatacenterinWayne.CorporateITusedNetBackuptowritelocalandincomingbackuptotape,andthenshippeditoff-siteforlong-termdataretention.Theremotetodatacenterbackupworkedwellenough,buttheteamfoundthatbackingupagrowingamountofdatatotapetookfartoolong.Theydecidedtofindahigh-performancebackupforthedatacenter.
TheyconsideredretainingNetBackupandbackuptodisk,butSymanteclicensingandmaintenancewasexpensive.Itwasalsodifficulttoscaleandtoaddnewbackuptargets.Theteamdecidedtolookfornewsolutions thatbackedupbothvirtual andphysical serverswithbetter scalability, higherperformance,andsimplifiedmanagement.TheyfoundCohesity,whichgavethemthefeaturestheywerelookingforatasignificantlylowerpricepoint.
THECOHESITYENVIRONMENTTheyinitiallyinvestedinaproofofconceptCohesitysystemwithfournodes.Thetestwentwell,sotheyaddedanadditionalfournodesandpurchasedaduplicateeightnodesystemfortheirbackupsite.Datareplicatesbetweenthetwosites.
Cohesitywasbasicallyplug-and-play.Krissaid, “One timeahardwarenode failed.TheremainingnodestookoverprocessingandCohesitysentanewnode.Wepluggeditin,theCohesityengineerscheckeditouttomakesureitwasgood,andeveryonewashappy.”
Theysoonsawseveraloperationaladvantages.NetBackupwoulddoincrementalbackupdaily,plusafullweeklybackup.Butoneserveralonestoresnearly2TB,andthechangerateonitisonly50to60MBaday.Afullbackupwouldtakehoursevenwithsuchasmallchangerate.WithCohesity,onceitfinishedaninitialfullbackupeverysubsequentbackupisdifferentialonlyandfullyrecoverable.Soinsteadoftakingseveralhoursonceaweektobackupthatserver,ittakesafewminuteseveryday.
Krissaid,“WesawatenfoldimprovementinspeedwithCohesity.Partofthatwasduetoswitchingfromtapetodisk,whichsavedushoursperweekonbackups.AndeachCohesitynodehasnetworkinterfaces,whichmakesitconsiderablyfasterthanotherdisk-basedbackupsystemswelookedat.”
AnotherfeaturethattheteamappreciatesisthatwithCohesity,youcanrecoverafailedVMandstartusingitwhileCohesityisstilltransferringdatabacktotheESXidatastore.Krissaid,“Whenyouhaveacriticalapplication,youcangetaccesstoitwithinafewminuteswhilethedataisstillrestoring.Thisisveryattractive.”
TOPBENEFITS1. Simplifiedmanagement.Thesinglebackupmanagementpanesavesbackupadministratorsen-
ergyandtime.“OneofthebigreasonsthatwewentwithCohesitywasitsall-in-onesinglepaneapplication.”
2. Easyscalability.Systemexpansiondoesn’thappeneveryday,butwhenithappenstheprocessissimple.“Cohesityisveryeasytoexpand,mucheasierthantheotherthreebackupproductsthatI’veusedinthepast.”
CopyrightãTanejaGroup,Inc.2017.AllRightsReserved. 12of12
CUSTOMERVALIDATIONFIELDREPORT
3. Easeofupgrades.WhenCohesityupgradeswithpatchesorOSupgrades,theprocessisdy-namicandproblem-free.“We’veupgradedtheclustersseveraltimeswithpatchesandnewfea-tures.Cohesityengineerscandoitremotely,orwecandoitourselves.Youbasicallyhitabuttonandwalkaway.There’snodowntime,sotheeaseofupgradeisgreat.”
WRAP-UP“Cohesity isprettymuchall-in-one. It’sallaccessibleviaawebpage, so there isn’tanagentoranapplicationthatyouhavetoinstallonyourlaptoporPC.Youaccessitfromanywhere.”
TANEJAGROUPOPINIONFormostenterprises,evolvingdataprotectionandachievingbettereconomics isacriticalpartoftheiroverallITmodernizationagenda.Thisisindeedthecaseforallthecompaniesweinterviewedforthisreport.Cohesitycustomersallwantedlowerstoragecosts,simplerandfasterdatabackupandrecoveryandmoreefficientandcost-effectivedataretention.
Butcompaniessaidtheycouldn’tmakeprogressbecausetheywerestrappedbysystemcomplexity,highlicensingcostsandtheinabilitytoeasilygrowtheirlegacysystems.Toachievetheirobjectives,organizationssoonrecognizedtheyneededto lookbeyondtheboundariesof their legacystoragesystems and standalone data protection applications. This led them to Cohesity and they soondiscoveredthepowerofhyperconvergedsecondarystorage.Theyfoundthatitprovidedtheeaseofuse,globaldatareductionandscalabilityneededtotrulylowertheirstoragecostsandsimplifyandspeeduptheirdataprotectionprocessesaswellasincrementallyexpandtheirsecondarystorageasneededwithoutaffectingperformance.
Cohesitycustomersalsohadastrongdesiretocontinuallyadvancetheiroverallsecondarystorageenvironment.Theywantedbetteroveralldatavisibility,self-serviceaccesstocopiesofproductiondatabases,lowercostfileservicesandaclearpathtothecloud.Onceagain,Cohesityproveduptothe taskbyproviding flexible policy-basedorchestration for centralizedmanagement ofmultipledataworkflowsandtheautomationofmetadataindexingtoenableGoogle-likesearchingaswellasadvanced reporting and analytics to assist with planning and data compliance. Companiesappreciated how Cohesity seamlessly incorporates cloud-based data workflows for archival anddisasterrecovery,sotheycanbenefitfromtheconvenienceofon-demandcloudstoragewhilestillmaintainingcompletevisibility,security,andcontrolovertheirdatairrespectiveofwhereitresides.
Theterm“paradigmshift”isoftenoverused,butforhyperconvergedsecondarystoragewethinktheterm applies. There’s no doubt that Cohesity’s hyperconverged secondary storage approach hasfundamentallychangeddataprotectionandsecondarystoragemanagementforCohesitycustomers.Cohesity’ssimplicity,scalabilityandflexibilityaretheantithesisofwhatmanycompaniesareusedto.AndgiventhetremendousvalueandmajorbenefitsCohesitycustomersareconsistentlyrealizing,webelievehyperconvergedsecondarystoragewillplayaverystrongroleinshapingthefutureofdataprotectionandsecondarydatamanagementforthecompaniesweinterviewedaswellasmanymoreorganizationsforyearstocome.
.NOTICE:TheinformationandproductrecommendationsmadebyTanejaGrouparebaseduponpublicinformationandsourcesandmayalsoincludepersonalopinionsbothofTanejaGroupandothers,allofwhichwebelievetobeaccurate and reliable. However, as market conditions change and not within our control, the information andrecommendationsaremadewithoutwarrantyofanykind.Allproductnamesusedandmentionedhereinarethetrademarksof their respectiveowners.TanejaGroup, Inc.assumesno responsibilityor liability foranydamageswhatsoever (including incidental, consequential or otherwise), caused by your use of, or reliance upon, theinformation and recommendations presented herein, nor for any inadvertent errors that may appear in thisdocument.
