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Built for Virtualization: Combining Dell’s Storage and Server Solutions to Maximize

Operational Efficiency and Minimize Cost of Ownership February 2010

Enterprise virtualization has reached a critical inflection point. Capital investment savings from server and storage consolidation are leveling off, and early gains in IT operational efficiency are increasingly at risk in rapidly growing and increasingly complex virtual infrastructures. Moreover, mission-critical business applications—the next virtualization frontier and the focus of most

current initiatives—demand more predictable service levels and faster response times, further increasing the pressures on IT operations.

In order to maximize future investment returns and continue to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for virtualization technologies, enterprises have no choice but to optimize their ongoing operating expenses—both hard and soft costs. This goal requires a review of the virtualization platforms and technologies in place today, at both the server and storage tiers of the IT stack, as well as existing management tools and processes. Successful enterprises will seek advanced server and storage technologies that improve integration, reduce process and tool redundancy, and enable widespread automation of virtualized compute and data services.

In this profile we explore the current state of the virtualized datacenter architecture and the limitations it places on operational efficiency. In particular, we examine the requirement for greater elasticity and flexibility in the storage tier, the need for tighter integration between server and storage virtualization, and the benefits of delivering storage capacity and data protection services directly to the virtualized workload. We conclude with a detailed analysis of Dell’s combined storage and server solutions and their proven ability to dramatically improve operational efficiency in highly virtualized infrastructures. Riding the Virtualization Wave While showing no signs of slowing down, the virtualization technology wave is cresting at the 10-year mark and entering its next phase of maturity. The coming decade will be marked as the period during which both server and storage virtualization matured from enabling technologies into core infrastructure components, delivered on demand, spanning every application tier and affecting all aspects of IT management.

Server virtualization, in particular, has already affected many dimensions of datacenter operations, and has followed a typical ‘disruptive technology’ path: aggressive early uptake followed by a period of re-evaluation, as new risks and operational challenges are exposed.

Virtualization has emerged from the test and development sandbox and is now proving its value in production application deployments. Early returns on investment (ROI) from

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virtualization were overwhelmingly driven by the consolidation of physical servers and legacy storage platforms; to a lesser extent, but importantly, virtualization also enhanced the agility of IT operations teams. Maximizing these early returns required technologies and tools that simplified and accelerated the delivery of virtual resources: automated physical to virtual (P2V) conversions, rapid provisioning and cloning, and self-service solutions, to name a few. The success of these solutions, however, combined with the push to virtualize more business-critical, “Tier 1” workloads, is rapidly exposing some tricky new operational challenges.

THE SHIFT FROM CONSOLIDATION TO QUALITY OF SERVICE

To be sure, virtualization has had a positive impact on IT operations to date, but its benefits have generally been limited to the deployment and configuration stages of the IT lifecycle. Now that virtualization supports high-performance applications and is quickly becoming the default deployment platform for all workloads, IT operations teams need more from their platforms, tools, and management solutions. Moving forward, new solutions must move beyond consolidation to maximizing application performance—the quality of service (QoS) delivered by virtualized workloads—while minimizing both hard and soft operating expenses (OpEx).

QoS is a key challenge across all types of virtualization. Desktop virtualization, which is expected to rival server virtualization in popularity over the next few years, typically requires a massive increase in storage capacity, drives higher rates of server

consolidation, and places additional burdens on the help desk. Remote/branch office virtualization is often accompanied by a reduction in local support headcount, placing further strain on the central datacenter’s infrastructure and staff. And, as cloud services mature and more firms explore their options for external compute and storage capacity, it’s becoming clear that there’s little benefit to outsourcing poorly performing, inflexible applications that already cost too much to support. Before any lift-out to an external cloud, firms must trim the fat from each application, remove dependencies on fixed storage or server resources, and automate management.

Virtualization in Transition: The TCO Inflection Point In our view, storage and server virtualization are moving from a “growth phase” into an “optimization phase,” exposing a critical economic inflection point. Dramatic consolidation of compute workloads and data sets has yielded ongoing CapEx and OpEx savings, and therefore a steady decline in virtualization’s total cost of ownership (TCO).

However, as consolidation ratios reach their maximum, the rapidly-expanding volume of virtualized storage and virtual server sprawl threaten to halt this decline by eating into OpEx savings (Figure 1). Too many vendors; multiple platforms and incompatible interfaces; multiple storage area network (SAN) architectures and protocols; and a proliferation of “point-solution” management tools: all of these challenges limit the ability of operations teams to respond quickly, scale capacity on demand, and meet service-level agreements.

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Figure 1: Virtualization at a critical inflection point for management efficiency (source: Taneja Group)

To reverse the decline in OpEx savings and get the TCO curve moving in the right direction again, successful firms will take advantage of this transition phase to take stock of their virtualized assets—both server and storage—and aggressively eliminate complexities and redundancies. In our view, the bottom line is: simplify and integrate, because complexity kills efficiency.

THE IMPACT OF VIRTUALIZATION ON OPERATIONS COSTS

Recent Taneja Group research indicates that 18-25% of application workloads in medium-to-large US enterprises are virtualized today, with plans in place to virtualize up to 25% more by the end of 2012. Most of these new workloads will be business-critical; more than 70% of the datacenter managers we interviewed report that they are planning to deploy Tier 1 applications primarily on

shared, virtualized servers moving forward. Our research also reveals that no less than 89% of virtualization-savvy datacenter managers report that their administrators are losing time due to the complexity and immaturity of virtualization management tools and processes. Of these, half claimed at least 10% of administrator time was lost, while 1 in 5 reported a 25% or more reduction in efficiency. These numbers translate into significant OpEx pressure.

SERVER AND STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION ARE TIGHTLY COUPLED

Our recent research also investigated the current state of storage virtualization and storage services in the face of growing server virtualization. In particular, we explored which specific storage management and data protection technologies users are employing

Lower-Priority

TCO

Growth Phase

CapExSavings

OpExSavings

Optimization Phase

Business-Critical

Transition

Number of Virtualized Workloads

Mgmt Efficiency Critical Phase

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today in their virtual server environments. Nearly 50% of 360 respondents report they are currently using storage virtualization technologies, such as pooling across multiple arrays and across different types of storage

(e.g. SAS and SATA), and 38% are using VMware’s Storage VMotion specifically. As shown in Figure 2, thin provisioning and space-efficient snapshots are also employed by just under one-third of all users.

Which of the Following Technologies Are You Using Today in Your Virtual Server Environments?

16.2%

5.6%

8.6%

12.0%

13.6%

26.7%

30.1%

32.6%

37.6%

49.9%

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

None of the above

Primary storage compression (Ocarina, Storwize, or similar)

NPIV, Virtual Connect, or similar N-Port ID Virtualization solutions

Storage virtual appliances

Server virtualization on top of a physical appliance (e.g. Riverbed RiOS,Sisco WAAS, etc.)

Data de-duplication or single-fi le instancing

Space-efficient snapshots

Thin provisioning

Storage VMotion

Storage virtualization (of any kind)

Figure 2: Storage virtualization technologies in virtual server environments (source: Taneja Group)

Our research also verified that the use of storage virtualization increases as an organization progressively virtualizes a greater share of its servers: just over 40% of the least virtualized firms—running less than 50 virtual machines (VMs)—use virtualized storage, while more than three-quarters of the most virtualized firms (500+ VMs) employ some type of storage virtualization.

In additional phone interviews with end users, many explained the reasons why they have invested in storage virtualization capabilities to complement virtual servers. As firms break the traditional “one application per server” approach to

computing, they need the flexibility to provision and allocate storage as needed, on a per-VM basis, regardless of where the VM and its associated applications reside at any given time.

This data validates the threat to TCO in firms who are committed to virtualization. Specifically, it indicates strong demand for integrated server and storage platforms that help reduce operations process redundancy, as well as for management systems designed for virtualized workloads and related storage. In other words: integrated, purpose-built solutions that support IT operations at the speed of virtualization.

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What’s Different about the Virtualized Datacenter? The very features that make server and storage virtualization so valuable in the datacenter are often the same ones that make them difficult to manage. These operational challenges include:

Scale Overwhelms Processes Consolidation helps to retire legacy and inflexible solutions (older servers, direct-attached storage), but the ease with which new virtual resources are created and deployed can quickly lead to an explosion in the number and type of virtual assets under management. There are simply too many moving parts for humans to keep track of without automation.

Abstraction Obscures Visibility Virtual resources connect to one another via dynamic, transient layers of abstraction that did not exist in the physical environment. Administrators can no longer rely on fixed mappings between tiers in the IT stack to monitor performance, troubleshoot issues or guarantee security levels. Visibility, at the element level and across domains—at the infrastructure level—is obscured and problem resolution is harder.

Boundaries Break Down Virtualization changes the definitions of and the lines of demarcation between IT resources, blurring or erasing traditional boundaries related to both infrastructure and personnel. For example, virtual machines (VMs) are no longer just ‘servers,’ but are also storage (a collection of files), which raises the question: who ‘owns’ the VM, the server or storage teams? Traditional separation of duties no longer applies.

Mobility Creates Complexity Virtual resources are inherently mobile; when a problem arises, how can the operations team identify the issue quickly and map an effective response? How can a detailed view of the virtualized infrastructure—which storage resources are allocated to which VMs, for example—be maintained? Traditional management tools may be of limited use.

Rapid Change is the only Constant Virtual resources are inherently flexible, making them easy to create, easy to deploy, and easy to reconfigure. These are all features that accelerate adoption, but stymie management and control. Without locking down the environment, how can operations teams encourage flexibility while still enforcing capacity, change and performance controls?

A Virtualization-Optimized Datacenter Architecture In Taneja’s view, a virtualization-optimized datacenter architecture is required to support the next phase of virtualization maturity. This new architecture must tightly integrate server and storage virtualization in order to extend the elasticity of the compute pool in the hypervisor to the storage layer.

In the legacy physical datacenter, each application was tied to a defined server and managed via a fixed operating system. Storage was linked directly to servers; both were inflexible and monolithic. With little mobility, element-based management was adequate. The only true “core” infrastructure layer—the only elastic and dynamic one—was the network interconnect layer.

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Today, the virtual server layer has also become core. The hypervisor delivers an elastic compute pool by decoupling and encapsulating server workloads (Figure 3).

While current storage architectures do provide some abstraction from physical storage, they do not provide true storage virtualization and have generally lagged in providing an elastic storage pool.

Figure 3: A virtualized, elastic compute pool with storage services tied to the physical layer

Frame-based arrays are inflexible, and storage is still allocated at the physical server layer. Storage services (e.g., migration, snapshots, and replication) are provided on a per-physical server or per-hypervisor basis.

These limitations constrain end-to-end elasticity and complicate management: administrators cannot provision storage at the granularity of the VM, nor do they have visibility from the VM into the specific storage resources it utilizes.

With truly virtualized storage, however, designed for virtualized infrastructure, we can eliminate the physical layer interface limitation and deliver storage capacity and services on a per-VM basis, creating equivalent elasticity in the storage pool. As shown in Figure 4, the interface mismatch between compute and storage goes away, unlocking the key benefits of virtualization—mobility, encapsulation, and scalability—across the entire application stack.

Figure 4: A virtualized, elastic storage pool with services allocated at the virtual workload layer

This elastic architecture also enables a clearer management path, one based on measuring service levels between dynamic virtual resources rather than monitoring the health of physical links or discrete elements.

Given these elastic compute and storage layers, however, with many more moving and changing parts at every tier, how can you enjoy the benefits of virtualization without suffering from operational overload and soaring costs?

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Operational Efficiency: The Key to Minimizing Datacenter TCO Successfully virtualized enterprises evaluate any potential storage, server, or management solution’s features in terms of their direct impact on improving operational efficiency. Ask yourself (or ask your vendor):

How does this platform/solution address the following essential elements of efficiency?

• Modular storage should scale up and out elastically. The storage platform should support simplified capacity scaling and migration of workloads via automated processes that reduce operator involvement and minimize the chance of human error. It should allow for dialing capacity up or down to match the flexibility of the virtual server platform.

• Storage services should be linked to virtual server workloads. You should be able to identify, monitor, and adjust data protection functions on a per-VM basis, in order to reduce redundant processes and the time required to locate and troubleshoot availability or performance problems.

• Storage virtualization functions should be automated. The platform should enable on-demand, non-disruptive migration, load balancing, pooling and tiering via automated workflows that are easy to configure and modify. This will minimize manual operations and reduce the chance of error and business downtime.

• The storage platform should maximize performance and capacity. Look for advanced and innovative thin provisioning and other on-board accelerations, combined with efficient use of high-speed SAN network connections.

• Servers should be energy efficient and scalable. To lower hard OpEx (facilities costs), evaluate the server architecture for expandability, scalability (also protects consolidation ratios) and advanced energy efficiency technologies.

• Management tools should be integrated and cross-domain. Look for management capabilities designed for and tightly integrated into server and storage architectures, usable by a broad range of IT staff across multiple disciplines with minimal training, and investigate the costs associated with acquisition, training, and on-going support.

With these operational efficiency essentials in mind, we present a thorough analysis of Dell’s combined solutions for storage (the EqualLogic PS Series arrays) and server (the PowerEdge Server family) virtualization in the sections that follow.

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EqualLogic Architecture: Storage without Boundaries Networked storage arrays have traditionally been built on a frame-based architecture, in which multiple shelves of SAS and SATA hard disk drives (HDDs) sit behind a set of redundant storage controllers. Such architectures enable storage administrators to scale up disk capacity in a single array by adding incremental drives, and to manage HDDs in a fixed, co-located set of enclosures.

However, frame-based architectures have severe limitations. The controllers on the frame are responsible for all disks in the array, making for a static and constrained architectural model. For example, when higher IOPS solid state drives (SSDs) are added, they must share controller resources, limiting the number of SSDs that can productively be added as “Tier 0” storage to a given frame. This prevents administrators in growing IT environments from cost effectively scaling up storage performance to meet growing demand.

Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays, on the other hand, are built on a patented, peer storage architecture. Each shelf of disks functions as a self-sufficient entity, including its own controllers, cache, bandwidth, multiple power supplies and RAID protection. Multiple such storage entities are joined together as peers, providing a single, logical pool of storage. Pool members dynamically share resources, redistribute workloads, and work together to optimize application performance.

The PS Series architecture simplifies both scale-up and scale-out strategies, and is

highly elastic: as new disks or shelves are added to an array, that capacity is absorbed into the pool and immediately shared. When a new array is added, data is automatically and transparently load balanced across the pool, among both different storage types and RAID levels, automating tiering. For example, based on observed performance, an array might move an application from a high-performance SAS shelf at RAID 10 to a less expensive shelf of SATA drives at RAID 5. Administrators no longer have to worry about having to decide in advance where specific application data resides or how it’s being protected; the PS Series array pool takes care of that for them.

THE IDEAL COMPLEMENT TO VIRTUAL SERVERS

These storage platform capabilities are highly complementary to Dell’s server hardware. Both are built for high availability and non-disruptive maintenance and together they provide an elastic pool of storage and compute. Adding powerful virtualization features, workloads can be moved and load balanced dynamically and non-disruptively across both server and array boundaries, even further optimizing both utilization and performance.

Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays are tightly integrated with hypervisor-layer features to enable higher order virtualization functions and to allow them to work efficiently with server platforms. For example, in a VMware environment, the PS Series utilizes vCenter and vStorage APIs to optimize data protection, disaster recovery, storage mobility and management capabilities. This

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tight integration optimizes the performance of VMware’s Site Recovery Manager (SRM), vMotion, Storage vMotion, and Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS) capabilities. Dell platforms are truly built for purpose: to satisfy the virtualization needs of any rapidly growing enterprise.

DATA PROTECTION TAILORED TO THE VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE

To better protect virtualized workloads, the PS Series is seamlessly integrated with snapshot managers in the VMware and Microsoft platforms. The Auto-Snapshot Manager/VMware Edition (ASM/VE) allows customers to create and centrally manage hypervisor-aware VM snapshots. Via an intuitive graphical interface, storage or backup administrators can schedule and manage point-in-time copies (including snapshots, clones and replicas) of VMs or VMFS data stores across the array-based volumes in which they reside. By offloading the processing of data protection functions from the hypervisor, ASM/VE increases PS Series storage utilization, and more importantly, enhances the scalability, quality and speed of VMware backup and recovery functions.

In Microsoft shops, the Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft Edition (ASM/ME) delivers protection for Windows application data residing in NT File Systems, SQL Server databases and Exchange Server Storage Groups. ASM/ME is integrated with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to provide full or differential copies of array-based snapshots. Application-aware snapshots, taken using VSS, enable transaction-consistent recovery of data, versus the more labor-intensive

recovery required with snapshots that merely deliver crash consistency.

The PS Series is also tightly integrated with the Citrix XenServer platform via Citrix’s StorageLink APIs. Through the EqualLogic StorageLink adapter, Hyper-V or XenServer hosts can directly provision and manage storage for VMs to fully leverage advanced thin provisioning, snapshotting, cloning and replication services.

THE SECRET SAUCE: ADVANCED STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION

The modularity, flexibility and cost benefits of PS Series arrays derive from their innovative architectural design and iSCSI network underpinnings. Members of a PS Series array work together automatically to share, balance, and manage data and workloads. Since they share the same underlying architecture, PS Series arrays can be used as building blocks to expand a SAN in a simple and cost effective way, and unlike many iSCSI SANs—which require expensive add-on functionality—PS Series’ advanced features come standard. Users benefit by leveraging existing IP components and networking skills, saving both money and time.

The PS Series’ innovative storage virtualization technology dramatically improves three key storage capabilities: pooling, load balancing and tiering. First, by abstracting and virtualizing storage resources, PS Series technology removes the need for SAN arrays and components to be aware of the physical storage topology. As shown in Figure 5, this automatically creates an elastic pool of storage that crosses spindle, controller, network and array boundaries.

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Figure 5: Grouping multiple PS Series arrays helps increase capacity and performance linearly—without increasing management complexity. Both Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches are supported in the SAN,

simplifying incremental network consolidation. (Source: Dell)

The iSCSI SAN and its respective links are virtualized and addressed with a single IP address. The Device Specific Module (DSM) and iSCSI Initiator work together to efficiently locate the specific array (and IP address) in which data resides—an excellent example of the power of EqualLogic storage. Resources allocated to a given pool flex dynamically to meet the needs of VM-based workloads. When a new array is required, it’s added to an existing peer group and connected to the SAN with a few clicks, linearly increasing disk drives, controllers, ports, and cache.

EqualLogic iSCSI arrays also accelerate the transition to new technologies such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) while protecting current investments in SAN infrastructure; Dell supports a mix of 1GbE and 10GbE switches in the same SAN environment.

PS Series pooling enables non-disruptive data migration and workload balancing, for greater efficiency and performance over time. Volumes are initially virtualized and distributed evenly among member arrays; as demand changes or resources are added, workload placement is continuously reevaluated and adjusted.

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Advanced pooling and load balancing, in turn, provide the foundation for powerful storage tiering in the PS Series. Tiering allows administrators to better match the resources allocated to an application to its required service level. Administrators can configure separate storage pools, each of which corresponds to a specific capacity or performance oriented tier. For instance, a low-cost, high-density, SATA-based array can be specified for archiving and backup. Workloads can be separated by application, service level, or department, and then allocated as a set to the appropriate storage tier. Optimal tiering makes capacity trending more accurate and helps delay new purchases, driving down TCO by exploiting the fact that capacity is always cheaper tomorrow.

With these features, PS Series arrays deliver for storage what VMware and Hyper-V virtualization delivers for servers: flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficient consolidation.

DATA ACCESS AROUND THE CLOCK

PS Series arrays also include advanced availability features that help prevent downtime in demanding production environments. All the key array hardware components, including controllers, power supplies and fan trays, are redundant, and can be hot-swapped. In case of failure, the storage controllers and I/O path components can automatically fail over to healthy counterparts. While these features prevent unplanned downtime, the inherent hot-pluggability of array components also supports planned downtime: maintenance or upgrades. New 10GbE controllers or SSDs, for example, can be added without

disruption; they are automatically detected as new group members. This robust design delivers greater than five 9’s (99.999%) of availability, satisfying the requirements of most datacenters.

Simplified long-distance disaster recovery is provided by the Auto Replication feature, which replicates data from a primary site to a remote recovery site over a standard IP network. Administrators configure and schedule replication on a per-volume basis without having to manage the underlying hardware resources. In the event of a disaster, administrators choose the most effective starting point for recovery from a catalog maintained at each DR site. Auto Replication is asynchronous and bi-directional, and includes failover/failback functions for non-disruptive testing. For VMware customers, an adapter provides integration with vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM), for finer-grained DR planning and control. Auto Replication is based entirely in the array, avoiding host-based licensing fees and the need to manage any additional components.

PERFORMANCE AND CAPACITY – WITHOUT COMPROMISE

Several recently-added PS Series features are also stand-outs. The SAN Data Copy Offload feature allows the movement of VMs among servers to be offloaded to the storage array, allowing an administrator to perform maintenance without incurring application downtime. More importantly, SAN Data Copy Offload helps to accelerate the cloning and provisioning of new VMs, which can be a time-consuming process and strain heavily loaded servers.

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The PS Series Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) integration feature contains the intelligence required to optimize array performance across multiple SAN connections. MPIO enables load balancing across multiple network ports (including host bus adapters and network interface cards). Dell provides intelligent MPIO software tailored for Windows and VMware platforms, and also supports native MPIO protocols in a variety of additional operating systems. MPIO is both automated and connection aware, so it can automatically determine the best I/O path between each physical or virtual server and its associated storage volumes.

The Multipath Extension Module (MEM) is an MPIO plug-in for the iSCSI Software Initiator. MEM allows VMware vCenter to understand where particular volumes reside and all potential paths between host and array. MEM helps vSphere (or ESX Server) to optimize the data path for each VM-based application. Together with the PS Series’ intelligent, fan-out architecture, MPIO and MEM support higher bandwidth utilization than was possible in previous versions of ESX Server, and can eliminate single points of failure between servers and storage for higher availability.

Thin provisioning, which is fully integrated into and managed from the array, allows physical capacity to be added on demand up to pre-set limits, preventing VM-based applications from running out of space. When a thin-provisioned volume is created, it can be sized for long-term application needs without allocating the physical storage up front, delaying new purchases. Thin provisioning can be applied at the individual volume level, and may be turned on/off as needed. In addition, PS Series

arrays provide alarms and controls based on user-defined thresholds, so administrators can take action before problems arise.

ADVANCED PROVISIONING AND MANAGEMENT…INCLUDED

The powerful but streamlined provisioning and management capabilities that come with every EqualLogic PS Series array help administrators to increase productivity, reduce errors and lower overhead. Administrators can dynamically provision all storage resources—including disk space, thin-provisioned volumes, connectivity, data protection and performance—to meet evolving application needs, without downtime.

Automated installation and no-cost SAN monitoring software complete the package. As an array is brought up, built-in intelligence senses the network topology automatically to eliminate cumbersome configuration tasks; an enterprise-class SAN can often be deployed in minutes. Dell also includes its SAN HeadQuarters (SAN HQ) storage monitoring software with every PS Series array.

SAN HQ includes intuitive charts and reports detailing the health status of PS Series groups, members, network and disks. Administrators can identify performance bottlenecks faster, correlate them to events in the virtual server infrastructure, and develop better remediation strategies. SAN HQ provides enterprise-class storage monitoring without in-house scripting or the need to license third-party add-on software—again, saving both time and money.

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EqualLogic iSCSI SANs & PowerEdge Servers: A Winning Combination for Boston Medical Center

Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a private, 626-licensed bed, academic medical center and the primary teaching affiliate for Boston University School of Medicine. Brad Blake, Director of IT, manages a diverse operations team covering all IT disciplines.

In 2008, he launched a massive server and desktop project to virtualize 500 Windows servers supporting all infrastructure applications (DNS, E-mail, HR, ERP and more) as well as hundreds of clinical user desktops. Faced with budget pressures from the start, Brad launched a concurrent SAN assessment to evaluate the efficiency and utilization of BMC’s storage environment. The assessment revealed that much of BMC’s SAN infrastructure could be more cost-effectively tiered with iSCSI storage as a potential replacement for much of the existing, expensive Fibre Channel SANs. Could it deliver the performance needed for high desktop consolidation ratios?

After running an in-house comparison between three leading SAN vendors, he chose Dell’s EqualLogic PS Series to complement his Dell PowerEdge R710 servers. Brad chose PowerEdge for both server consolidation (with VMware) and hosted desktop virtualization (using Windows Server 2008 RDS) because “we get massive density. We boot desktops from SAN, so the server is where all he horsepower is. I can cluster them and load them up with all the memory I need.”

Now, a quarter of the way into this 3-year effort, he has virtualized over 300 servers and desktops and contained what would have been 100 net new server purchases.

Taneja Group asked Brad to explain why he chose the Dell storage and server combination.

“Cost Efficiency above Everything.”

Brad explained: “if we could find a storage solution with equivalent performance that had less management overhead than FC SANs, we knew we needed to explore it.”

He could no longer justify paying for incredibly powerful servers, then spending thousands more for HBAs, switches, etc. His move to 10GbE gave him the bandwidth he needed “to really consider moving my tier 2 and 3 applications off the expensive SANs” to iSCSI. His team also makes extensive use of tiering in a comprehensive ILM strategy, so easy and flexible tiering was “critical.” His storage platform needed to scale down to doctors’ offices and up to the datacenter, and be easier to manage.

“It Was Eye-Opening.”

In the evaluation, Dell’s EqualLogic iSCSI SAN platform came out “head and shoulders above the rest in terms of performance, the time it took to get it up and running and configured, how solid it is, the cost, how modular it is, and how it even helps toward our green initiatives.” Brad was convinced: “to our surprise, it was just as simple when Dell wasn’t standing next to us as when they were. My engineers could set them up on their own right away, in an hour, not days.”

In the old days, he added, server administrators could manage storage. In the last 10 years, it’s become too challenging and complex, so you have to find and hire specialized FC storage engineers. Not so with EqualLogic iSCSI arrays. Brad added, “With Dell my team can add capacity and processing power/cache as needed.” His datacenter footprint is much smaller, since he houses storage alongside servers, in standardized racks, power, and networking, “flattening the infrastructure.”

Significant CapEx and OpEx Savings

Brad reports that iSCSI throughput and IOPS performance on 10GbE is such that moving his tier 2 and 3 apps to EqualLogic is a “no brainer.” In fact, most of his tier 1 apps qualify as well. “If the performance is there, there are so many other reasons why iSCSI is more cost efficient,” he summarized. “My staff is maxed out, because we continue to buy more management solutions that aren’t integrated; with Dell we get end-to-end provisioning all from a single pane of glass.”

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2010, TANEJA GROUP, Inc. All Rights Reserved 87 Elm Street, Suite 900 Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530 www.tanejagroup.com

Dell PowerEdge Servers: Scalable, Flexible, and Green Dell’s family of PowerEdge Servers is an impressive set of advanced computing platforms that complements EqualLogic storage. Now in its 11th generation, the PowerEdge family offers three form factors: rack, tower and blade, with industry-leading reliability, manageability and energy efficiency. And while each is designed to run performance-hungry applications well, in our view the PowerEdge M-Series Blade Server is the ideal partner for EqualLogic storage in virtualized datacenters, particularly in scale-out environments.

The M-Series line includes a range of models: two and four socket configurations in half-height and full-height formats. All fit into the M1000e modular blade enclosure, which is designed to support multiple generations of blade servers with different processor/chipset architectures and varying I/O needs—all in the same chassis. Dell’s FlexAddress technology delivers persistent network and storage identities using WWN or MAC addresses, and ties these identities to the enclosure chassis rather than individual blades. The innovative M1000e enclosure provides flexibility and extensibility by future-proofing server investments.

STINGY ON POWER AND COOLING

M-Series Blade Servers are designed for energy efficiency. High density reduces power and space requirements, while breakthrough fan technology provides active, zoned cooling that can be dynamically scaled as an installation grows. Models M605, M805 and M905 feature

dynamic frequency and voltage support, for optimized power consumption and lower energy footprint. Power supplies include dynamic control and power monitoring for even greater efficiency. At the enclosure level, the M1000e offers additional power management and real-time reporting, for making adjustments on the fly.

BUILT FOR ZERO DOWNTIME

The M-Series is particularly well-suited to virtualized environments. Blade processor configurations and form factors can be mixed and matched, allowing virtual servers or desktops to run on the specific blade platform with the best balance between cost and performance.

Three I/O fabrics are available, including FC8, 10GbE and Quad Data Rate Infiniband; again, customers can choose the best fabric on a per-server or per-application basis. The M610 and M710 models go one step further, providing full redundancy on all three fabrics, for tremendous I/O availability and capacity. At the enclosure level, the FlexAddress capability of the M1000e enables customers to upgrade or replace components (or the entire server) without affecting the network.

PERFORMANCE TO MEET PEAK DEMANDS

The M610 and M710 models offer Intel Turbo Boost technology, which delivers performance on demand for peak loads. These servers also offer significant memory capacity, for higher densities at lower overall memory costs. And, with the increased piping provided—including full redundancy for any choice of fabric—users can increase their I/O capacity dramatically.

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2010, TANEJA GROUP, Inc. All Rights Reserved 87 Elm Street, Suite 900 Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530 www.tanejagroup.com

MANAGEMENT SIMPLIFIED: THE SINGLE PANE OF GLASS

M-Series Servers have a rich set of built-in installation and management features to increase automation and administrator productivity. The M605, M805 and M905 models include embedded virtualization, and the entire line includes an interactive LCD panel for initial set-up and follow-on troubleshooting, as well as a deployment wizard to simplify installation.

Selected M-Series models include more advanced systems management via on-board utilities, such as the Unified Server Configurator and iDRAC6. The M1000e chassis includes an integrated KVM switch, and also allows administrators to oversee

multiple blades and enclosures from a single console, via redundant access paths which are exposed by built-in chassis management controllers.

Finally, the Dell Management Console provides a single pane of glass from which to manage any number of PowerEdge Servers, and its OpenManage APIs are integrated with VMware vCenter for end-to-end virtual server visibility and control.

Dell takes a full lifecycle approach to server management, following a “deploy-monitor-update” cycle. This reduces reliance on traditional server device management, which is at best piecemeal and at worst terribly inefficient.

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2010, TANEJA GROUP, Inc. All Rights Reserved 87 Elm Street, Suite 900 Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530 www.tanejagroup.com

Taneja Group Opinion Virtualization-savvy enterprises are well aware that server and storage virtualization are inextricably linked: it’s impossible to optimize one side of this equation without affecting the other. This maxim applies to compute and storage technology, capacity, performance, provisioning, and protection, as well as to all related operational processes. Wherever you are on the path to widespread virtualization, you will benefit from solutions that not only support consolidation of virtualized workloads and storage, but address the complex challenges of maintaining and improving the overall quality of service (QoS) for your virtualized applications.

Dell’s integrated server and storage solutions provide proven benefits for operational efficiency across the virtualization spectrum, from server hardware to storage platforms, services, and integrated management. EqualLogic PS Series arrays employ a patented, peer architecture to enable dynamic and automated scale up and scale out; they deliver an elastic pool of on-demand storage that is both linked to and optimized for virtual server workloads. Dell’s storage services innovations enable faster and simpler provisioning, snapshotting, replication, and disaster recovery, also linked to the virtual workload.

The vendor’s PowerEdge Server family is extensible, highly available, scalable, and energy efficient; when combined with the PS Series array, these servers deliver a highly efficient and manageable end-to-end virtualization solution. Finally, Dell’s no-cost SAN HeadQuarters storage management software and the single-pane-of-glass Dell Management Console are integrated with leading hypervisor platforms and support automated lifecycle management across the virtual infrastructure—a powerful, cost-effective, and easy to use solution for the overworked virtualization support team.

As companies enter the second decade of enterprise virtualization, they increasingly need to augment declining CapEx savings from consolidation with new savings gained from increased operational efficiency. This requires platforms and management solutions that increase automation, reduce errors, eliminate inefficiency, and increase storage and compute elasticity. The keys to success are to eliminate architectural limitations from multiple, legacy storage platforms and to retire cumbersome management processes which were designed for a much different datacenter. Dell’s combined platforms, services, and management innovations are proven to minimize the on-going OpEx costs of a virtual infrastructure—the most important contributor to long-term TCO in the datacenter. NOTICE: The information and product recommendations made by the TANEJA GROUP are based upon public information and sources and may also include personal opinions both of the TANEJA GROUP and others, all of which we believe to be accurate and reliable. However, as market conditions change and not within our control, the information and recommendations are provided without warranty of any kind. All product names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. The TANEJA GROUP, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any damages whatsoever (including incidental, consequential or otherwise), caused by your use of, or reliance upon, the information and recommendations presented herein, nor for any inadvertent errors that may appear in this document.