Data Centre Storage Review Dell EqualLogic Storage ArrayDell Compellent Storage ArraySyncSort NSB Backup (NetApp Storage)

Dell EqualLogicVMware vSphere 5 Test & Dev. Environment

Time line and Configuration• Late 2010 Dell presented an opportunity to

evaluate a recent storage acquisition EqualLogic.

• Early 2011 Dell installed a pair of Dell 6000 series storage arrays and two Dell PowerConnect switches for iSCSI traffic.

• We provided two Dell R710 Servers with vSphere 5 licenses to establish a test and development environment.

Dell EqualLogic – Cont’dVMware vSphere 5 Test & Dev. Environment

Experience• The current system has allowed IS&T to relocate

39 Virtual machines from our production systems.

• There are still approximately 20 additional servers that still need to be migrated to this environment.

• This provided SLC the ability to ease the capacity of the virtual environment in addition to having freed 19TB of production SAN space.

• Application Developers and the test users have not seen any difference in performance.

Dell EqualLogic – Cont’dVMware vSphere 5 Test & Dev. Environment

Storage Features• Data Center Bridging*, Auto-Replication (Multi-Site), Instant Volume Restore, Multi-

Volume• Writeable Snapshots, Snapshot and Auto-Replication Scheduler, Volume Cloning, Thin• Clones, Volume Consistency Sets• Manual Transfer Utility offers File compression, Data Encryption, Password protection,• Transfer status updates, Replication and Failback, Transfer continuation after interrupt.• Enhanced Load Balancing*, VMware® Thin Provisioning awareness for vSphere™ v4.1

to• complement the existing Thin Provisioning*, Non-disruptive array addition and removal,• Automatic or Manual Storage Tiering, Complete SAN Virtualization, Online Data and

Volume• Movement, Storage Pools, Thin Provisioning, SAN Data Copy Off-load, SAN Zero Off-

load and• Scalable Lock Management for VMware• Microsoft® Active Directory Integration*, Auditing of Administrative actions*, Roles-

Based Administration, Volume Management, Dell EqualLogic Group Manager CLI or GUI

• Auto-Stat Disk Monitoring System, E-mail Home, Enclosure Monitoring System, Detailed Historical Performance Monitoring

Assessment and future use The platform has proved to be very efficient and reliable. As a result SLC has deployed the 4000 series of storage arrays for a small DR site for a few critical business applications. During testing the users were please with the performance of the DR environment.

This would be a very cost effective option for the small locations and is comparable with like NetApp storage arrays.

Dell EqualLogic – Cont’dVMware vSphere 5 Test & Dev. Environment

Questions

Dell Compellent – Cont’d

March 2010, SLC Data Center and Server team experienced a change in leadership. During this time I began managing requests for storage and a budget. November 2010 SLC purchased 12TB of Hitachi Storage for 132K USD.

December 2010 HDS support notified me the pending expiration of our support contracts which were 286K USD. I began discussions with HDS on replacing the SAN. Those quotes came back at 890K USD for a 124TB system that was no bigger than what I currently owned.

Q1 2011 Dell presented their Server and Storage solutions including their recent Acquisition of Compellent Storage systems. Shortly their after Andrew Crocker commissioned the Advance Data Center Strategy review.

History

Dell Compellent – Cont’d

• Began evaluations of storage vendors Hitachi, NetApp and Dell.

• Criteria considered, Performance, Tiered Storage, Thin Provisioning, Data Replication, Snapshots, Expandability, Support, Energy Efficiencies and Total Cost of Ownership.

• Each vendor had their areas where they shined.

Enterprise Storage

Dell Compellent – Cont’dWhy Dell over others…

Dell was chosen for a number of factors…1. Total Cost of Ownership2. Automated Tiered Storage3. Data Replication to other Compellent4. Expandability / Zero Down Time5. Licensing6. Performance 7. Energy Efficiencies8. Reporting9. Support Hardware and Software10. Integration with VMware11. Price 785K USD for 268TB of useable storage

Dell Compellent – Cont’dSavings – Storage purchases

Below is a comparison between the HDS storage costs versus the Dell Compellent. This represents the purchase of 12TB of usable storage. The HDS solution requires a number software tools and licenses to either be purchased or upgraded before the storage is usable. The Compellent needs no additional licenses or software tools.

12 TB of StorageCurrent Cost Savings Cost ProposedHDS $ 132,000.00 $ 114,000.00 $ 18,000.00 DELL

As you can see from the table above the proposed solution is far more cost efficient purchase. These savings in conjunction with the support tools of the SAN will keep the cost of storage lower due to the intelligence around how data is stored.

Dell Compellent – Cont’dSavings – Storage purchases

• Tier 1 storage now costs $5,000 per TB compared to $22,000 for the legacy HDS System

• Tier 3 storage now costs $2,000 per TB compared to $12,000 for the legacy HDS System.

19.7816%

103.05TB84% Tier 1 Storage

Tier 3 Storage

SLC Data Center Managed Storage – Dell CompellentAugust 2012

Dell Compellent – Cont’dSavings – Operating Costs

The biggest surprise in our choice of the Compellent storage array was the cost reduction in power at the SLC Data Center.

After the last HDS Storage array was migrated over to the Compellent and powered off a power audit was commissioned.

To our surprise we dropped our over all spend on power in the data center by 12K USD per month.

Questions

SyncSort NSBHistory

• The previous backup solution was taking 80 hours to perform a full backup.

• This was impacting the user experience and delaying our incremental backups.

• Strictly a data recovery tool, only when tape resources were available.

• Emergency restores placed ERP Data at Risk of recovery

SyncSort NSBBenefits

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Questions