Hitachi Cloud Services for Private File Tiering. Low Risk Cloud at Your Own Pace. The Hitachi Vision on Cloud

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1 S o l u t i o n P r o f i l e Hitachi Cloud Services for Private File Tiering Low Risk Cloud at Your Own Pace Hitachi Data Systems is a premier provider of cloud storage infrastructure, services and solutions that deliver integrated, elastic, virtualized and highly available cloud environments. We deliver secure, flexible, scalable and easy-to-manage cloud storage infrastructures that are location independent and enable you to lower total cost of ownership, meet service level agreements and improve operational efficiency. We also deliver fully managed cloud services so that you can reduce costs, improve efficiencies and pay for only what is consumed, all while providing the agility to grow and shrink capacity to meet the ever changing demands of the business. The Hitachi Vision on Cloud Cloud is not a single product, but rather a way to provide IT services. The Hitachi Data Systems approach offers an integrated set of solutions and service offerings, which allows you to choose the best possible solutions to address your particular cloud needs, at your own pace, while protecting your existing investments. helps manage the explosive growth of unstructured content. The solution enables organizations to move legacy or lower value file data to cloud storage located within their organization s firewall and only pay for the storage that they consume, when they consume it. Organizations can request additional storage when needed. Best of all, they do not need any resources to manage the private cloud environment. Overview The ever increasing complexity of data centers and the massive growth of data are multiplying the amount of compute capabilities and resources required to store, process, optimize and serve information back to end users. As they have attempted to address these issues, organizations have Hitachi Data Systems

2 S o l u t i o n P r o f i l e 2 rapidly adopted virtualization and are now looking to cloud delivery service models to reduce costs, increase flexibility and improve their time to market. Cloud s ability to grow and contract storage resources, in concert with business needs, eliminates up front capital expenditure for underutilized assets and minimizes operational expenses due to continual data growth and management complexity. By deploying cloud models and leveraging cloud managed services, organizations only pay for what they consume and eliminate the day-to-day management tasks altogether. The massive growth of data such as business documents, file data, computer aided design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM) and web content are leading many organizations to build large network attached storage (NAS) environments that have become increasingly complex to manage and costly to operate, never mind taking precious resources away from the most active and frequently accessed data. Research has found that roughly 80 percent of the data residing on primary NAS devices is stale. This stale data requires constant backup and management, which in turn consumes more capacity and IT resources. In addition, most of the stale data resides on tier 1 storage, causing the overall total cost of ownership (TCO) for this environment to be very high. File Tiering Storage as a Service is a cloud solution that directly addresses this challenge. By leveraging a private cloud delivery model, organizations can reduce costs, allow seamless access to tiered data, simplify management and improve the efficiency and longevity of their primary NAS environments by: Moving legacy or lower value file data to cloud storage Aligning payment to consumption (only paying for the storage that they consume when they consume it) Eliminating the need for any resources to manage the environment With the explosive growth of unstructured data stored in NAS environments, many organizations are challenged with: Cost of storing and managing stale data on primary NAS tier Proliferation of file servers Poor utilization Uneven cost to value ratio of data and storage Increasing management costs and complexity Slowing performance of primary NAS Exploding backup volumes and shrinking backup windows Cloud Service for Private File Tiering is a integrated, fully managed usage-based service that moves legacy or lower value unstructured data into a cloud storage environment located within the organization s data center (see Figure 2). The data stays in the organization s data center, but the organization only pays for the storage that is used on a monthly subscription basis. Maintaining the data within the organization s environment ensures that existing security methodologies are maintained. The physical infrastructure in the organization s data center is remotely managed by Hitachi Data Systems through a secure connection. This reduces management overhead and provides the necessary skills to optimize the storage environment. When new storage is required, an automated request is made and fulfilled based on the policies set up front between Hitachi Data Systems and the organization. The storage is then remotely provisioned and managed by Hitachi Data Systems. The characteristics of the offering include: Figure 1. Optimizing Your Primary NAS Environment Fully managed usage-based service to move inactive file data into a cloud environment Move long tail content off primary NAS stores and into cached cloud store Access old content when needed via primary NAS by way of stubs Target unstructured content or file shares Offered in three standard service packages No capital expense; equipment is in organization s data center, but owned and remotely managed by Hitachi Data Systems $/GB/month consumption pricing (pay per use) Standardized packages to address small, medium and large starting configurations The key products and services included in this solution are Hitachi Content Platform, Hitachi Remote Storage Management services and Hitachi Data Protection Suite.

3 S o l u t i o n P r o f i l e 3 Figure 2. Cloud Service for Private File Tiering in Action. The service moves legacy or lower value unstructured data into a cloud storage environment located within the organization s data center. Benefits The Cloud Service for Private File Tiering allows organizations to tier multiple NAS filers to their resident cloud infrastructure over a local high speed network [local area network (LAN) or metro area network (MAN)]. By deploying a cloud service delivery model, organizations are able to consume resources as a service and pay only for those resources they use. They can also gain operational and capital expense savings, simplify IT management and improve the performance of their primary NAS environment. In addition, once the data has been tiered to the cloud storage, Hitachi Data Systems can provide advanced data protection capabilities via replicated cloud storage.

4 S o l u t i o n P r o f i l e 4 Description Business as Usual (Growing NAS environment) A comprehensive economic analysis using Hitachi Data Systems Storage Economics methodology compares business as usual operating practices to using the Hitachi Cloud Services for Private File Tiering and shows the clear economic advantages of using the Hitachi Cloud Service. Businessas-usual operating practices are defined as adding storage capacity to meet the growing the file and content storage environment by adding NAS devices. Table 1 summarizes this comparison. By using the Hitachi Cloud Service for Private File Tiering, organizations will avoid up front capital expense, Hitachi Cloud Service for Private File Tiering Up front CAPEX Yes No Asset ownership Yes No Burst mode capacity No Yes Archive management Yes, with own staff No, remote Ingestion, policy management Cost of power, cooling floor space Cost of hardware, software upgrades Security, encryption Yes, with own staff Yes Yes Yes, data stay on customer site No Yes No Yes, data stay on customer site, secure remote connection for remote management Tech refresh effort, cost Yes No Table 1. Comparison of Business-as-usual Practices and Hitachi Cloud Service for Private File Tiering unplanned incremental storage for burst capacity and additional costs for hardware and software upgrades and warranty and maintenance. Solution Components and Configurations The Hitachi Cloud Service for Private File Tiering integrates key hardware, software and services from Hitachi Data Systems in a unique pay-per-use model. The key products and services included are Hitachi Content Platform, Remote Storage Management services and Hitachi Data Protection Suite, powered by CommVault. Hitachi Content Platform The Hitachi Content Platform provides a highly scalable and reliable enterprise-class storage infrastructure as part of the Cloud Service for Private File Tiering. The Hitachi Content Platform enables creation of an agile, unstructured content environment with general purpose object stores that support a variety of services via a single optimized storage platform that abstracts details of the back end storage systems and creates homogeneous storage environments. The Hitachi Content Platform enables a multitenant object storage environment with the security and broad protocol support needed to enable organizations to gain the benefits of consolidation without compromising security or completely rewriting critical applications. With its flexible, modular design, the Hitachi Content Platform allows administrators to scale up or down on demand and with petabyte scaling potential. Hitachi Content Platform securely segregates data within different namespaces to prevent unauthorized access. Furthermore, built-in high availability and RAID-6 data protection allow administrators to provide online access and protect against data loss. The solution leverages high density SATA to provide maximum capacity at a lower price point, helping organizations reduce their overall TCO. When comparing estimates of business as usual (local NAS data storage TCO) to those of the Hitachi cloud solution, a significant cost benefit is seen with the Hitachi cloud solution. With all configuration sizes, there is at least a 25% reduction in the unit cost TCO for owning and managing the file and content environment.

5 S o l u t i o n P r o f i l e 5 Remote Storage Management Services For organizations looking to reduce their management costs or lacking the resources, staff or expertise to implement and maintain their own storage infrastructure, Remote Storage Management Services from Hitachi Data Systems quickly and cost-effectively provide best practice monitoring, reporting and provisioning capabilities for storage management. These services offer the most comprehensive set of remote storage management capabilities with the ability to provision storage as well as monitor the storage environment. They help organizations fill expertise and staff gaps cost-effectively and quickly, with greater organizational flexibility. The skilled managed services staff from Hitachi Data Systems gains secure access to an organization s environment via VPN, Citrix or WebEx connectivity as a remote user, based on the organization s security protocols, and essentially becomes an extension of the organization s IT resources. Hitachi Data Systems works within the organization s Remote Working Access Policy, while adhering to the relevant User Administration Policy and Procedures. Hitachi Data Protection Suite Hitachi Data Protection Suite includes Hitachi Data Archiver software, which is tightly integrated with the Hitachi Content Platform to provide seamless and intelligent policy-based data movement into the cloud. The Data Archiver module lets administrators use existing storage resources more intelligently. The software migrates file system data from primary NAS to less expensive secondary storage. By shrinking the size of the primary NAS environment, Data Archiver software reduces backup windows, prevents overcapacity incidences, eases IT administrative burdens and improves system performance. Migrations are automatically scheduled before thresholds are met, seamlessly extending the capacity of a NAS volume. Data Archiver software allows users to access more data online and ensures that all data is managed. Based on predetermined criteria, Data Archiver software automatically migrates unstructured file data to the cloud object store, leaving a stub in the primary NAS environment so users can transparently recall the information is a fully managed offering that allows organizations to pay according to capacity usage. Because the solution is managed exclusively for the organization on their premise, the offering requires a minimum commitment in order to sign up, and then organization is billed monthly based on actual storage consumption. The Remote Storage Management Service also includes integrated reporting on the capacity and performance of the cloud storage environment. Understanding that security is a top priority, Hitachi Data Systems uses Hi-Track Remote Monitoring system software to provide completely secure access to detect potential problems and proactively address them. To demonstrate the high level of security within the software and the method with which the software transmits information to Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Data Systems has passed an independent audit performed by ISCA labs to validate its security. ISCA posted this audit on their website: HITACHIDAT S.pdf. Benefits Eliminate Capital Expense Reduce Operating Expense Improve Primary NAS Environment Improve Backup Performance Description Employ consumption-based pricing. Support unpredictable demand with "just in time" storage. Eliminate oversubscription of storage. Move stale data to a fully managed environment. Improve efficiency and utilization of existing investment. Reduce amount of backup media, licensing and management overhead required. Reduce amount of storage on primary NAS. Improve performance, scalability and manageability. Achieve better return on assets (ROA). Reduce amount of storage to be backed up. Improve backup and restore times.

6 S o l u t i o n P r o f i l e 6 when they need it. The stub files allow users to access migrated data the way they always have; no special user interface is needed. Migrated data appears in the user s browser interface with a special icon alerting users that the file has been migrated. Recalling migrated data is easy; users simply highlight and click the file and it is automatically recalled from storage. The Cloud Service for Private File Tiering provides online access to tiered data so administrators can meet corporate guidelines by quickly and easily recalling migrated files from the cloud object store. Additionally, the solution is integrated with leading backup and virus scanning software so that recalls are not required from the cloud solution in order to perform these normal management tasks. Solution Architecture Figure 3 highlights the architecture for the. Organizations can tier multiple NAS filers to the cloud over a high speed LAN or MAN. Based on the intelligent policy engine, inactive files are seamlessly migrated to the cloud storage. The cloud solution leverages highly available Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage with high density SATA drives. Once the file enters the cloud solution, Hitachi Data Systems remote managed services take over the active monitoring, management and administration of the tiered data, and allow administrators to focus resources on managing primary, active data. This solution can be purchased in three configuration sizes according to the file tiering requirements. The configurations are all based on the same architecture. The three configuration sizes are: Small: starting at 50TB Medium: starting at 200TB Large: starting at 500TB The initial configuration size is based on the predicted volume of data that will be tiered to the solution, but it can be scaled up or down based on consumption and requirements. Custom configurations are also available if required. Figure 3. Architecture Lower TCO by at least 25% with Hitachi Cloud Service for Private File Tiering The financial and operating benefits of the are clear. When comparing estimates of business as usual (local NAS data storage TCO) to those of the Hitachi cloud solution a significant cost benefit is seen with the Hitachi cloud solution. With all configuration sizes, there is at least a 25% reduction in the unit cost TCO for owning and managing the file and content environment. Table 2 shows the relative unit cost (TCO/TB/Year) comparison for each configuration size. The TCO model consists of costs related to storage capacity, number of storage systems managed, software, services, management labor, power, cooling and depreciation, and it assumes a data growth rate of 30%, utilization rate of 66% and depreciation term of four years.

7 S o l u t i o n P r o f i l e 7 Table 2. Relative Cost per Terabyte per Month for Business as Usual Compared to Summary helps organizations manage the explosive growth of unstructured content in their environment. The solution enables organizations to move legacy or lower value file data to cloud storage and only pay for the storage that they consume when they consume it. By tiering inactive file content to the cloud, administrators can improve the performance, efficiency, scale and longevity of their primary NAS environment in addition to improving their backup and restore times. From a financial perspective, organizations can eliminate up front capital expenses and reduce operational expenses by simplifying their environment and consuming storage as a service. For More Information For more information regarding the capabilities of the Hitachi Cloud Service for Private File Tiering and how it can support your data center, please contact your Hitachi Data Systems Representative or visit

8 S o l u t i o n P r o f i l e Corporate Headquarters 750 Central Expressway Santa Clara, California USA Regional Contact Information Americas: or info@hds.com Europe, Middle East and Africa: +44 (0) or info.emea@hds.com Asia Pacific: or hds.marketing.apac@hds.com Hitachi is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd., in the United States and other countries. Hitachi Data Systems is a registered trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd., in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks and company names in this document or website are properties of their respective owners. Notice: This document is for informational purposes only, and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning any equipment or service offered or to be offered by Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. Hitachi Data Systems Corporation All Rights Reserved. SP-042-A DG June 2010