Messaging and document collaboration platforms are mission-critical for
many enterprises. Rich feature sets in applications such as Microsoft Exchange
Server 2010 have significantly changed the way in which employees utilize
messaging, evolving from standard desktop e-mail access to messaging and
collaborating from any office and with any device. Fueled by anytime, anywhere
access, expanding bandwidth, and increasingly rich media types, data storage
requirements for messaging applications have experienced compounded
growth. These shifts have resulted in many organizations rethinking their
storage strategies to meet these demands.
Exchange 2010 can greatly expand the demand for storage resources by
increasing the size of mailboxes, centralizing mailbox archives with a new
personal archive capability, easing recovery of accidentally deleted items with
a redesigned dumpster, and the simplification of high-availability management
with the introduction of Database Availability Groups (DAGs). In planning
their deployment of Exchange 2010, Exchange administrators need to define
a decisive storage strategy that can manage email storage growth and
performance demands,
protect vital communications
for compliance, and control
complexity and costs. As
a result, many Exchange
industry analysts argue that a
storage area network (SAN)
is almost always a more
efficient and effective storage
strategy for medium to large
Exchange installations.
Microsoft Exchange 2010 with Dell Compellent: An efficient, agile, and resilient storage solution.
Solution Brief
Dell Compellent Benefits
• Improve Exchange storage efficiency – Dell Compellent Data Progression automatically moves frequently used data to higher performance tiers of storage while moving infrequently used data to lower cost, higher-density disks.
• Seamlessly grow Exchange environments – Using Dell Compellent Dynamic Capacity (Thin Provisioning), storage resources are only consumed as the Exchange database grows, deferring storage purchases until required.
• Simply protect Exchange databases – Use Dell Compellent Instant Replays and Replay Manager to shorten recovery times, offload backups, and simplify disaster recovery planning while providing business continuity.
• Consolidate Exchange into agile, efficient enterprise architecture – Dell Compellent SANs are a natural component of consolidation and virtualization strategies within the enterprise datacenter.
A Dell Compellent SAN seamlessly manages Exchange Data Growth
Dell Compellent Storage Center, based on the Dell Fluid Data
Architecture™, can lead the way in transforming how Exchange
data is stored and managed. Dell Compellent provides a flexible,
resilient and agile SAN solution that dynamic Exchange 2010
infrastructures require. Features such as Compellent Data
Progression, Dynamic Capacity, and Replay Manager, help
simplify storage operations and data protection for Microsoft
Exchange 2010 environments, and offers flexible, cost-effective
expansion to seamlessly accommodate e-mail growth and
retention requirements.
Increase Exchange storage proficiency with Dell Compellent
A significant challenge faced by an Exchange administrator is how
much storage to allocate and configure. Given the possibility of
dramatic increases in storage use and the potential challenges
in reconfiguring DAS and JBOD storage, Dell Compellent can
provide a more flexible and cost-effective alternative.
Using Dell Compellent Dynamic Capacity (Thin Provisioning),
storage is allocated automatically only as it is written by
Exchange. By creating virtualized data volumes, unused physical
storage space is allocated from a common pool for use by
all Exchange volumes on an on-demand basis. This flexibility
allows you to pay only for storage resources as they are actually
consumed and reduce ongoing power and cooling expense. As
storage needs grow over time, storage resources are seamlessly
added without incurring downtime. Dynamic Capacity
provisioning process not only improves Exchange storage
efficiency, it also increases storage agility.
Data Progression intelligent storage tiering automatically stores
frequently accessed Exchange data on high performance
Tier-1 storage and migrates less frequently accessed data from
Tier-1 resources to low-cost, high-capacity Tier-3 storage. A
Dell Compellent storage platform with Data Progression can
provide unmatched flexibility that allows for an incremental,
pay as you grow approach for additional storage. And since
almost 80 percent of Exchange data is inactive, Compellent
Data Progression helps ensure agility and flexibility in designing
Exchange storage architecture; it leverages higher performance
drives where they are needed without breaking the bank.
Snapshots functions are critical for point-in-time Exchange
volume recovery and can help remove the often lengthy
and arduous recovery process from tape backups. Dell
Compellent Replay Manager™ snapshot consistency software
helps Exchange administrators avoid time consuming manual
recovery operations, ensure governance using automated
Microsoft Windows PowerShell™ scripting, and complement
current data center backup policies with a granular Exchange
recovery process. Replay Manager seamlessly integrates with
Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to quiesce or
pause I/O between the Exchange server and storage volumes.
It takes space-efficient storage area network (SAN)–based
snapshots of Exchange data without taking the application
offline. And instead of depending on full volume clones to back
up server applications, Replay Manager leverages Compellent
Data Instant Replay to enable space-efficient point-in-time
copies of Exchange data sets. Replay Manager ensures that
up-to-date copies of Exchange datasets are always ready in
the event an Exchange volume recovery is required and helps
safeguard the Exchange database resiliency.
Efficient, agile and resilient Exchange storage
Microsoft® Exchange 2010 presents many compelling
benefits to enterprises today, while significantly increasing the
need for efficient, agile, resilient storage. Dell Compellent SANs
help enterprises transform the way in which their messaging
application data is stored and managed, is designed to make
the best use of available storage and provides a solid foundation
for shared resource architecture. Dell Compellent is the right
choice for an enterprise Microsoft® Exchange 2010 deployment.
© 2012 Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved. SB204_USA_040912
For more information, visit http://www.dellstorage.com/application-integration
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