Making the Case for Storage on Demand

Transcription

1 Making the Case for Storage on Demand ViON ON DEMAND STORAGE EBOOK

2 Making the Case for Storage on Demand

3 Introduction Chapter 1: Address Today s Critical Storage Challenges Chapter 2: Capture Big Benefits From Storage On Demand Chapter 3: Leverage Evolving Storage Options Chapter 4: Put Storage Experts On Your Side Chapter 5: Why ViON?

4 INTRODUCTION

5 It s no wonder that storage tops the to-do lists of many government and commercial enterprises. With data volumes growing at exponential rates and new technology initiatives, such as Cloud, virtualization and Big Data, requiring increased capacity and performance, powerful storage options are now a must-have. Storage is also increasingly complex. Yet, today s tight IT budgets leave little room for error, so it s important to make the right choices from the start. In this ebook, we ll make the case for storage on demand and show you exactly how this innovative model delivers impressive results with fewer headaches and a much smaller price tag. Read on to learn more.

6 1: ADDRESS TODAY S CRITICAL STORAGE CHALLENGES

7 While data growth and storage demands are increasing rapidly, buying storage infrastructure is becoming cost prohibitive and leasing often requires a long-term commitment. Neither of which provide the flexibility required in today s dynamic and competitive landscape. Moreover, legacy systems already in place often hamper performance and consume scarce resources. Today s agencies and businesses need better performance, more resilience and efficiency to meet mission-critical demands and capitalize on the promise of new technologies, such as Cloud, virtualization and Big Data. Complexity has also crept into the storage landscape. Keeping up with storage demands takes much more than simply adding more disks to store more data. Organizations not only have to address the growing volume, velocity and variety of data, but also must schedule backups, ensure disaster recovery and meet rapidly evolving regulatory requirements. They have to prioritize data storage, determining and following through on appropriate storage tiering, consolidation and virtualization, segmentation and archiving strategies. Determining proper storage and data tiering, data pool and RAID configurations, as well as matching application performance requirements to storage types, are all difficult tasks. Then there are security, accessibility and scalability issues to address and that s just to start. All of these activities involve multiple stakeholders and new levels of complexity that call for particular expertise, an innovative procurement model to keep costs down, and a more comprehensive approach to storage overall. They require ViON on Demand.

8 2: CAPTURE BIG BENEFITS FROM STORAGE ON DEMAND

9 Forward-thinking organizations are capturing big benefits with ondemand storage models. ViON on Demand is a business strategy under which ViON acquires storage and/or complete data center infrastructure on your behalf and provisions the infrastructure on an as needed or as a service basis. With ViON on Demand, you re free from traditional capital expenditures and the storage you need can be quickly accessed, customized and scaled up or down to align with your unique requirements. Hardware and software can either be installed on-premise at your facilities or hosted and managed elsewhere. Instead of purchasing equipment that may quickly become obsolete, ViON on Demand allows organizations to use Operating Expense (OpEx) funds to immediately access leading-edge technology they might not otherwise be able to afford with minimal risk. ViON owns and manages the equipment, but you choose the vendor, configuration and technology elements included in your infrastructure. No capital is required. Vendor lock-in is avoided entirely. And you get the opportunity to truly right-size storage, maximize capacity and performance, and dramatically lower costs by paying only for what you use. Storage can be scaled within hours or days instead of weeks or months and there are no minimums, ceilings or penalties for deactivation. Best of all, ViON on Demand frees valuable internal resources that may be bogged down by the cumbersome complexities of provisioning or managing storage to finally focus on meeting new objectives and driving innovation instead of spending all of their time addressing storage demands.

10 Take advantage of ViON on Demand to: Align storage and IT infrastructure with current objectives Significantly lower costs and leverage Op-Ex vs. Cap-Ex funds Access and implement a wider array of storage solutions and support Eliminate the risk of under or over-provisioning storage Gain access to leading-edge storage technologies Avoid vendor lock-in and pay only for the storage you use Capitalize on best-practice Service Level Agreements (SLAs) The benefits of ViON on Demand are clear. We ll take a look at some of the storage options and advanced technologies you can access via ViON on Demand in the next chapter.

11 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CAN EITHER BE INSTALLED ON-PREMISE AT YOUR FACILITIES OR HOSTED AND MANAGED ELSEWHERE.

12 3: LEVERAGE EVOLVING STORAGE OPTIONS

13 Today s storage landscape offers more options than ever before. ViON on Demand and EMC deliver direct access to an array of leading-edge storage solutions designed to satisfy mission-critical requirements, including: ENTERPRISE STORAGE: Enterprise Storage offerings from ViON and EMC provide agile and scalable platforms with unmatched reliability to support today s modern applications, which require systems that are always on and always available. ViON on Demand puts the industry s best combination of enterprise-ready storage, advanced global storage virtualization and efficient, easily scalable high-performance hardware within easy reach, enabling continuous operations, self-managing policy-driven management and agile IT. EMC VMAX stands out in the crowd of Enterprise Storage Solutions as the first tier 1 storage platform offering simultaneous Continuous Data Protection. Considered the world s most trusted storage solution, VMAX delivers >99.999% uptime, which is why 94% of Fortune 50 companies and 90% of the largest banks in the world rely on VMAX. SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE: Software-Defined Storage or SDS includes data storage technologies that separate storage hardware from the software that manages storage infrastructure. By abstracting software from hardware, SDS empowers portability, scalability and flexibility, greatly improving the capacity and performance of storage systems and lowering the overall total cost of storage. EMC ViPR is software-defined storage specifically designed to manage and automate all storage resources for traditional and next-

14 generation Cloud storage platforms. Along with EMC ViPR Controller (storage automation software that centralizes and transforms storage into a simple, extensible and open platform), it s easy for organizations to deliver automated policy-driven storage services on demand through a self-service catalog, which reduces time, cost and risk. FLASH: Due to its extreme flexibility and ability to scale quickly to meet a wide variety of workloads and performance demands, Flash storage is transforming storage architecture and revolutionizing the enterprise data center. All-Flash storage arrays can scale up or down to meet exacting requirements, allowing organizations to speed applications, create hybrid environments or supercharge entire storage systems. EMC XtremIO is an all-flash storage array designed to unlock Flash s full potential. XtremIO uses industry standard components and proprietary intelligent software to deliver unparalleled levels of performance. A building-block approach lets users scale-out to any desired performance or capacity just by adding X-Brick scaling units. Resources (i.e. storage processors, memory, Flash capacity and host ports) automatically scale in balance, so there are no bottlenecks. Plus, a user-friendly interface makes planning, provisioning and managing the system simple.

15 CLOUD STORAGE: With Cloud storage, digital data is stored in logical pools, physical storage spans multiple servers and locations, and the physical storage environment is typically owned and managed by a separate hosting company. Cloud storage allows businesses and agencies to easily exploit unlimited storage space and empowers collaboration and flexibility as users can access their files from anywhere at any time. Providing the savings and simplicity of Public Cloud with the control and security of Private Cloud, the EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ESC) Appliance lets enterprises take advantage of hyperscale Cloud storage by providing turnkey storage infrastructure that supports applications such as web, mobile, Big Data and social media. The ESC Appliance delivers the cost advantages of commodity infrastructure, complete with the reliability, availability and serviceability customers have come to expect from EMC.

16 4: PUT STORAGE EXPERTS ON YOUR SIDE

17 To put it simply: Storage is hard. Without being well-versed and trained in the intricacies of storage technologies and best practices, as well as its integral role within IT infrastructure, it s easy to create rather than solve storage dilemmas. Choosing the appropriate storage solutions, architecture and deployment models is no easy task and there is no reason to go it alone. ViON on Demand puts storage experts on your side helping you make the right storage choices from the start for given use cases to ensure maximum value and benefit to your business or agency. As a longstanding EMC strategic partner, ViON has the certifications and strong understanding of EMC technologies to help you determine the right solutions for specific needs and even design custom storage architectures leveraging EMC technologies. Through its innovative products and services, EMC helps organizations store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset information in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. ViON on Demand doesn t stop at hardware and software. It provides an array of managed and professional services designed to transform how storage and IT infrastructure deliver business value. You determine the level of support that your organization wants and needs. In some cases, where resources and storage expertise are plentiful, that may simply mean ViON manages installation and configuration, then steps away. Need more support? No problem. ViON can handle everything from storage design, engineering, architecture, capacity planning and provisioning, to break-fix, upgrades, ongoing administration, software licensing and more. We work closely with your IT shop to understand what your true storage needs are and how best to support them from start to finish.

18 5: WHY ViON?

19 ViON is a veteran-owned, privately held company with over 30 years of experience delivering enterprise-grade storage to the federal and commercial marketplace. ViON has more than 12 years of experience providing on-demand storage to businesses, government agencies, DOD and civilian agencies, CONUS and OCONUS locations, and classified and unclassified environments. ViON works with the largest OEM suppliers in the industry to design and implement custom solutions that meet any IT storage or server need. We are a certified EMC partner, well known for our engineering expertise and exacting standards. Our team ensures that only those with superior training, experience, and industry certifications design, install, maintain and support your storage solutions. To provide the highest levels of customer care, ViON also operates two 24x7x365 support centers in the United States, staffed by U.S. citizens, and our field and support engineers are located throughout the country, so your ViON storage team truly works where you work. To further simplify procurement, ViON offers a range of contracts and agency-specific purchasing vehicles. Contact us to learn how you can get ahead of your most pressing storage challenges with ViON on Demand and EMC. Visit to learn more.