Member Login

E-mail:    Password:  




 TitleDate AddedCompany
whitepaper Strategies for Reducing Data Center Power Consumption2008-01-24 Dell EqualLogic
  With concerns about power consumption and energy costs growing, efforts are underway to make data centers more "green" (energy efficient) and sustainable (reducing the use of non-renewable resources). In most data centers, servers draw more energy than storage devices; still, it has been estimated that all of the disk drives spinning around the world today generate emissions equivalent to 9 million cars annually.

Some analysts suggest that in 2008 half of all data centers won't have the power they need - and yet, many data centers waste as much as 60% of their energy on inefficient server and storage infrastructures. To encourage power reductions some utility companies and state energy auditors are offering rebate programs; consultants have developed new services to analyze power profiles and suggest improvement strategies.

Tags: Data Center, Strategic Planning, Storage Consolidation, Green IT		   
whitepaper 8 Phases of a Successful Consolidation Initiative2007-08-20 PlateSpin
  As organizations look to reduce the physical and environmental footprint of their IT operations, consolidation is a logical first step. However, a poorly planned or executed consolidation effort can result in complex configurations and increased IT overhead. In some cases, physical server sprawl is merely replaced with virtual sprawl where virtual machines are allowed to proliferate in an ad hoc fashion. This white paper provides best practices for ensuring a successful consolidation initiative and a maximum return on investment. Find out why data centers are beginning to view server consolidation as an ongoing IT strategy with long-term benefits for the organization, and learn about emerging technologies and approaches that are improving the speed and quality of server and data center consolidation initiatives.

Tags: Infrastructure Management, Data Center, Blades, Storage Consolidation, Virtualization		   
whitepaper Making IT Invisible: NetApp Storage for Virtual Server Environments2008-01-25 NetApp
  The goal of IT is to become an invisible entity within a larger scale organization--an entity that can quickly adapt to change and scale to meet the rapidly changing needs of today's business, an entity that focuses on delivering and maintaining applications, not infrastructure. In order to achieve IT transparency, IT's visibility needs to be eliminated, since all anyone ever sees are the problems and road blocks IT creates which inhibit business flexibility, growth and potential revenue. Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) speaks with hundreds of IT end-users and the majority of them share a common goal of driving down capital and operational costs, simplifying ongoing management, reducing maintenance overhead and improving asset utilization (doing more with less). With such demands, it is hardly plausible for IT to become invisible -- or is it?

To make IT invisible, consider a popular science experiment that demonstrates the different states of matter as we learn how water changes from a solid to a liquid. Conversion between these two vastly different states is called a phase transition which is exactly what IT needs to undergo to become invisible. IT needs to find ways to make the transition from a solid to a liquid. The silos that have been built within the IT organization need to be re-architected with a fluid infrastructure that connects the disparate pieces and flows with the business.

Server virtualization is one such technology that provides liquidity to IT by delivering improved hardware utilization, physical server consolidation, increased availability and lower data center operating costs. ESG believes that server virtualization is acting as a catalyst for virtualization at all layers within the data center, a concept ESG refers to as Infrastructure Virtualization. The server virtualization market is red hot and is only showing signs of increased adoption. Businesses are running production workloads on virtual machines and finding the bene

Tags: Storage Management, IT Reliability, Storage Consolidation, Virtualization		   
whitepaper PS Series Groups: Deploying Microsoft SQL Server in an iSCSI SAN2008-01-25 Dell EqualLogic
  This Technical Report describes how to deploy SQL Server in an iSCSI SAN with Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage arrays. It provides configuration and management recommendations for SQL Server and the PS Series storage.

Tags: Database Management, Data Center, SANs, Storage Consolidation		   
whitepaper Virtualizing Storage for VMware Success2008-01-23 NetApp
  Server virtualization has made day-to-day life a whole lot simpler for systems administrators; however, the benefits have not been shared by storage administrators and backup operators, who face new challenges as the result of data encapsulation. Storage infrastructure and operational practices that were designed for physical server architectures are not well suited to meet the demands of a virtual infrastructure.

Backup and disaster recovery practices have to change radically. New light needs to be shed on the importance of data protection and recovery time objectives (RTOs). Any consolidation effort also consolidates risk. With VMware the point of risk has shifted away from servers to shared storage. A RAID failure in a virtual infrastructure is catastrophic, as it potentially impacts dozens of virtual servers and applications. Any restore operation that requires data to be copied from another form of media can take days.

NetApp storage virtualization technologies solve these challenges and alleviate the burden on storage and backup teams. This article from NetApp's Tech OnTap newsletter describes how NetApp can:
  • Cut storage costs by half or more
  • Reduce VMware RTO to minutes
  • Increase efficiency to decrease soft costs
If you've virtualized your servers but not your storage, you've only done half the job. Virtualizing your storage infrastructure is critical to addressing the unique storage needs of VMware.

Tags: Storage Management, Storage Consolidation, Virtualization		   
whitepaper Dell EqualLogic PS Series with VMware - Virtual servers meet virtual storage2008-01-23 Dell EqualLogic
  Consolidation of data center assets has become a trend in many IT environments, providing benefits such as improved hardware resource utilization, easier management,and lower costs.

For storage, consolidation is accomplished by moving data off of a direct attached storage (DAS)to inside the server onto a shared pool of storage in a storage area network (SAN).

Read this solution brief to see how server consolidation has become popular thanks to technologies like VMware ESX Server and GSX Server. These "virtual machine" products consolidate server data images onto fewer hardware platforms which improves IT efficiency.

Tags: Storage Management, SANs, Storage Consolidation, Virtualization		   
whitepaper Case Study: GHS Data Management - Improving Data Protection and Storage Reliability for Critical Databases2008-01-21 Dell EqualLogic
  Discover how a healthcare management company met the challenge of improving data protection and storage reliability for its critical databases. This case study examines how GHS Data Management implemented an iSCSI SAN solution into its data center to provide scalable growth and comprehensive data protection with replication and application-aware snapshots.

Tags: Data Center, Data Recovery - Security, Storage Consolidation		   
whitepaper One of Oregon's Largest Counties Deploys Equallogic2008-01-18 Dell EqualLogic
  Clackamas County, Oregon, is home to more than 338,000 people. Heavily timbered, the county's geographical features include Mt. Hood and numerous rivers - the Willamette, Clackamas, Sandy, Pudding, Molalla and Salmon. The Aging Fibre Channel SAN could not scale to meet growing demands. Clackamas County replaced old Fibre Channel SAN with modular PS Series SAN for central storage consolidation and data protection. It attached stray servers to the SAN, eliminating all direct attached storage.

Tags: Server Consolidation, Storage Consolidation		   
whitepaper Irish Builders Merchant Supports Growth With New Server Suite That Uses Approximately 25% Less Energy2008-01-18 Dell
  MacNaughton Blair in Ireland has grown rapidly through acquisition, internal investments and sales campaigns. But the company had outgrown its IT system. To continue running its successful business and support further growth, MacNaughton Blair needed a new server and storage suite that increased IT capacity and simplified management processes. MacNaughton Blair deployed Dell for its solution and implemented a new, more powerful solution before the company's office move. The system, designed by Dell consultants, consists of Dell PowerEdge servers that run a combination of Microsoft and VERITAS software and Dell OpenManage, and a consolidated storage environment from Dell EMC.

Tags: Storage Management, Storage Consolidation		   
whitepaper Case Study: Clackamas County Oregon's Outdated Fibre Channel Infrastructure Runs Out of Capacity2008-01-18 Dell EqualLogic
  Learn how one county government in the state of Oregon solved the problem of an aging Fibre Channel SAN that could not scale to meet growing needs. This case study discusses how Clackamas County's IT Department replaced an old Fibre Channel SAN with a modular iSCSI SAN solution for central storage consolidation and data protection.

Tags: Data Center, SANs, Storage Consolidation		   


Recognizing technology companies that matter

ZDNet Asia Top Tech Index

Find out who you should be spending your IT budget with