1. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 1 The Case for File Server Consolidation using NAS Nancy Marrone Senior Analyst The Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. http://www.enterprisestoragegroup.com

2. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 2 Topics for Today  Consolidation of server and storage resources  Agenda  What are the issues with today’s storage infrastructure  How does consolidation using NAS help address these issues  How do we move to a consolidated NAS infrastructure

3. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 3 What keeps you up at night?  Are the business applications performing to expectations/requirements?  Is the data always available?  Can we meet the backup windows?  What happens if an application needs more storage resources?  What if we lose people? Can we keep up with managing our complex environment?  How do we address growth with current budget/staff constraints?  Consolidation of storage and server resources can help address these issues

4. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 4 Current State of Storage Market  Storage Requirements continuously growing  Storage capacity requirements growing at 70% a year  Amount of data stored on Windows servers estimated to be doubling every 12-18 months  IT budgets stagnant  Yet 50% of administrators surveyed need to manage growing IT environment with same (or fewer) staff  Cost of managing storage 3-5x cost of storage  Management tasks- find available storage, determine usage patterns, load balance, migrate and replicate data, add new storage,backup, archive etc  Costs higher in DAS environments- done on individual basis

5. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 5 Common Storage Infrastructure Environments  Over 70% of environments still primarily configured with direct attached storage  Over 50% of general purpose servers used as file servers (not optimized for performance,scalability)  Files “shared” by transfer to another server (email, ftp)  Then saved again at local level (either on DAS or file server)  Backup generally on a server by server basis

6. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 6 Problems with today's storage infrastructure  Every host/server and it’s storage (DAS) must be managed separately  Disparate tools, different GUIs  Ineffective use of resources  On average DAS and File server utilization around 30%  Makeshift file servers (not optimized) impede performance  Difficult and time consuming to add additional resources  Backup and recovery is a nightmare  Backup windows long (back up individual servers, often duplicate data)  Recovery of individual servers very time consuming  Multiple points of failure  Heterogeneous file sharing difficult (CIFS vs NFS)

7. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 7 Problems with today's storage infrastructure  Examples of Storage issues affecting applications  Database applications  Performance- all clients must go through app server to DAS  Reliability- app server goes down no access to data (without cluster failover- performance may degrade afterwards)  Messaging applications  Performance issues- GP servers used as file servers  Scalability- File servers limited in number of hosts it can handle  Manageability- File servers often geographically distributed- no central repository  All applications rely heavily on the performance of their storage infrastructure

8. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 8 Solution- Migrate to Networked Storage  Determine data requirements  What data/files are currently being used  Where is data  Who is using data  What data is critical for your business  Consolidate Storage Resources –SAN or NAS  Migrate data from multiple sources to few  Consolidate File Servers  Move from multiple single host/DAS configurations to central source  Enables consolidation of backup and print servers  Use software tools to manage many as one

9. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 9 Networked Storage Options- SAN or NAS  Both enable consolidation and sharing of storage resources  SAN- Storage Area Networks  Separate network running Fibre Channel protocol  Requires specialized hardware (HBA’s, switches)  Like DAS, but storage resources are shared  SCSI calls made over FC protocol  NAS- Network Attached Storage  Server optimized for fast file access/sharing  OS is streamlined for one purpose  Has integrated storage  Attaches to standard IP LAN  Use CIFS and NFS and other protocols for heterogeneous server access  NAS Gateway  NAS “head” does file serving, uses shared storage on SAN

10. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 10 Storage Network Architecture  SAN= block access  Typically need speed of direct block transaction  Need to know location of block-generally accessed by application  Typical to use SAN for large scale DB applications  NAS=File access  Used for any file based transaction  More user oriented (know name of file required)  Uses existing network infrastructure  Typical for messaging, development applications, file sharing  SAN- good for sharing resources  NAS- good for sharing data

11. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 11 Storage Consolidation  Today’s Focus  Storage Consolidation using NAS

12. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 12 Benefits of Migrating to NAS  Improve performance  NAS solutions are dedicated, streamlined for one purpose  Front end optimized for NFS and CIFS call performance  Reduce Storage Capacity Requirements  Multiple heterogeneous users have access to same information  Eliminate need for multiple DAS resources  Eliminate duplicate files- use resources more effectively  Single file serves multiple users  Sharing helps increase utilization rates-all files located on one server  Increase reliability  Reduce number of points of failure  Can enable failover and clustering

13. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 13 Benefits of Migrating to NAS  Reduce management costs  Central management  Reduce time consuming/repetitive tasks  Improve Scalability  Additional storage easily added to NAS  Simplifies configuration changes  Significantly Reduces time required to add capacity  Improve Security  Set policy around who has access to what files  Policies set by groups or user

14. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 14 Benefits of Migrating to NAS  Increase Data Availability  Replicate/snap non-disruptively  Backup from Snap results in little downtime for application  HA built into some NAS appliances  Eliminate backup issues  Backup from single source  No need to back up multiple, duplicate files- reduce windows  All of the above =Reduced overall costs

15. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 15 How do I get there?  First step – assess your environment  SRM solutions allow to to see actual usage  Report on what users use what files  Can find duplicate and redundant files  Reports can predict growth- use to determine size of NAS solution  Consolidate from multiple file servers or DAS environment to single NAS  Tools available to aid in migration with little disruption  Configure system to enable sharing amongst appropriate users

16. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 16 Then what?  Continuous use of SRM solution will ensure effective utilization of resources  Restrict certain files  Option: set quotas on individual users  Determine if files that are aged, not accessed recently should be removed  Reports help determine growth requirements  Employ additional features  Replication solutions (SNAP, Mirroring) for data availability  Clustering for high availability and reliability  File directory services for ease of use and management of files

17. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 17 State of NAS Market  Recently Microsoft solutions gained over 30% of NAS market share - Why?  Easy to deploy/manage/ support  Windows powered NAS fits seamlessly into MS environment  Long standing partners (OEMs, integrators) easily support solution  Very low cost per GB  Offers significant management capabilities  Active Directory  Snapshot capability (Persistent Storage Manager)  Replication features  Cluster solutions  Embedded SRM (Storage Manager)

18. 2 June 2015 © Enterprise Storage Group, Inc. 18 Summary  Server and Storage Consolidation using NAS will pay off In multiple ways (Less than 12 Months ROI)  Gains in:  Performance  Management efficiencies  Reliability  Easy to implement  ESG perspective- with current technologies and the cost per MB, there is no reason to not consolidate your storage resources - the benefits outweigh any arguments

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