brocade r3 rootsan technologies bangalore is a branch of microaccess ltd nigeria

7/31/2019 Brocade r3 Rootsan Technologies Bangalore is a branch of Microaccess ltd Nigeria

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Eecutie SummrCompanies with branch ofces and remote ofces face a number of unique and

interesting challenges in striking the proper balance among remote servers, WAN

bandwidth and application performance.

In a new survey by The Strategy Group, IT professionals tasked with supporting

branch ofces identied their top initiatives and concerns: File security leads by a

signicant margin, with WAN bandwidth and latency optimization, remote

application performance and real-time le-sharing following close behind.

Half of the respondents are interested in consolidating le servers at branch loca-

tions, while two out of ve see a need to consolidate Windows management, androughly a third want to consolidate print, Active Directory and DNS services.

The most powerful driver for consolidation is cost reduction, cited by 84 percent

planning consolidations. Another 61 percent aim to simplify disaster recovery,

while slightly more than half, 51 percent, want to boost security.

More than two in ve organizations are undertaking server consolidation efforts,

while more than a third are consolidating storage.

Remote backup also clearly remains an issue. More than three-quarters of the

companies, 77 percent, perform weekly backups. On average, they achieve an 86percent success rate. Despite this, the respondents believe less than 10 percent of

IT budget or staff could be reallocated if remote backups were eliminated, but the

companies inability to measureor even imaginethe full effect of eliminating

backups is common.

Sure Metooo/Profe o Responents

This survey was conducted online from January 10 through January 16, 2006, by

The Strategy Group, an independent research rm in Englewood, Florida. Survey

participants were chosen among a sample of technology decision makers selected

from the Ziff Davis Media database. A total of 631 ZDM qualied subscribers

completed the survey.

IT Consoitionor Brnc OfcesFrom sure o tecnoo ecision mers

A M A r k e t A n A l y s i s

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Number o Brnc Ofces/Remote Users

The respondents represent both ends of the spectrum in terms of number of

branch ofces supported (see Figure 1). Thirty-one percent have between one

and ve ofces, while 27 percent support 26 or more ofces, but some very large

companies reporting in the latter category skew the statistics. The average number

of branch ofces is 70, a staggering number when consideration is given to how IT

complexitiesand costsmultiply.

The average number of remote, traveling or oating users is also high: 1,059. Fully

26 percent of the respondents support 500 or more remote users (see Figure 2).

At the risk of stating the obvious, such large, far-ung operations are difcult and

expensive to manage. Users demand high-performance, responsive computing,

which organizations must balance with security, administrative control and backup.

Remote ofce operations are also mission-critical, as evidenced by the high number

of people supported. Outages, performance degradation and security breaches

are intolerable. Companies pay for reliability and safety, but where there are costs,

there are also potential savings.

Importnce o IT Initities

Windows-based le security is cited as the most important objective by 82 percent

of the respondents (see Figure 3). WAN bandwidth and latency arent far behind at

69 percent. Remote application performance, at 66 percent, is nearly equal. This

nding makes sense as the main reason for investing in bandwidth is to achieve the

low latencies that high-performance applications demand.

2

None

51+

26-50

NUMBER OF BRaNCh OFFICES SUPPORTEd FIgURE

Total respondents = 631

15% 3-5

16%

20%

1-2

20%

10% 6-10

12% 11-257%

None

500+

6-25

NUMBER OF REMOTE, TRavElINg OR FlOaTINg USERS SUPPORTEd FIgURE 2


15% 100-499

10%14%

1-2

26%

9% 3-5

11% 26-9915%


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Real-time le sharing and collaboration, at 64 percent, is next on the list. Todays

workforce fully expects to use collaboration tools, from instant messaging to multi

media conferences, transparently, and to move large les around effortlessly.

Although consolidation of remote le servers to a centralized data center falls fth

on the list, half of the companies (47 percent) consider it an important IT objective.

Centralization, of course, improves control and backup, but also places higher

demands on the WAN as remote ofces access the les.

Optimition Current in Use

Three-quarters of respondents use optimizations to speed WAN performance and

reduce latency. Optimizations are typically generic services provided by the oper-

ating system, and include compression, caching of often-accessed les and generalbandwidth optimization. IT professionals have a broad range of optimizations to

choose from, some that are no-brainers, others that require thought and planning

for best performance.

Remote le access (RFA) is used by 64 percent, and 87 percent of those are using

optimizations. Generic RFA techniques speed some kinds of access, but not

others, such as protocols with high handshaking overhead.

Nearly 50 percent of the organizations (49 percent to be exact) use compression as

a specic optimization. Like generic RFA techniques, compression is effective for

streaming, large le exchanges and updates. It becomes less effective as communi-cations become bursty and more protocol-dependent.

One-quarter of the companies employing optimizations use HTTP acceleration,

which can be embodied as a hardware product or as a service running on the server

HTTP acceleration is, of course, most useful to companies serving large numbers

of HTTP requests.

A quarter of the optimization-using respondents have implemented quality of service,

a generic term, but one that has special applicability to network operations.

Typically, the organization prioritizes certain classes of communication according

to its needs, so that WAN bandwidth is used most effectively. For example, video-

0 20 40 60 80 100

IMPORTaNCE* OF vaRIOUS INITIaTIvES TO

ORgaNIzaTIONS IT OBjECTIvES FIgURE 3

82%

69%

66%

64%

47%

*Respondents rating initiatives as important or very important


Windows-based fle security

WAN bandwidth and latency optimization

Remote application perormance

Real-time fle sharing and collaboration

Consolidation o remote fle servers


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streaming packets may be given a higher priority than bulk data transfers or e-mail.

The fact that organizations are paying attention to the different kinds of trafc

and protocols on their networks is generally a good sign, as it indicates they are

managing or prepared to manage bandwidth and performance proactively.

Only 11 percent using optimizations say that they have found a successful way to

accelerate Common Internet File System (CIFS) or Network File System (NFS)

performance. Although CIFS and NFS are widely used on wide-area networks,

they are considered to be chatty protocols, more suitable to LANs than WANs.CIFS/NFS acceleration involves caching and compression, is often implanted in

hardware and is typically a key step in server consolidation.

Trets or Fortcomin Consoition Eorts

Those surveyed also have many targets for planned consolidation efforts, with 51

percent of respondents citing le servers (see Figure 5). Another 39 percent cite

Windows management, while both printing and Active Directory/domain controller

issues are mentioned by 34 percent. Just under a third mention DNS/DHCP issueswith Exchange services coming in at 28 percent.

The above results are interesting because hardware is clearly the largest target--the

easiest to put a dollar gure on and the one providing the most tangible results. But

server consolidation also forces companies to attack most of the other categories as

well. As servers are removed or centralized, the domain structure is often attened

and streamlined. Lower administrative costs are a typical, but an often unmeasured,

byproduct. Exchange services are a challenge for any organization, rife with

tradeoffs based on remote servers, protocol overhead and performance.

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0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

WaN OPTIMIzaTION TEChNIqUES USEd FIgURE 4


64%

36%

19%

18%

16%

8%

27%

Remote fle access

Compression

HTTP acceleration

QoS

TCP acceleration

CIFS/NFS acceleration

None

0 10 20 30 40 50

CONSOlIdaTION TaRgETS FIgURE 5

51%

39%

34%

34%

30%

File servers

Windows management

Print

Active Directory/domain controller

DNS/DHCP

Exchange services


28%


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Pns or Net 12 Monts

Targets for consolidation efforts are admirable, but putting them into a timeframe

brings them into much sharper focus. When the participants are asked which they

would undertake in the next 12 months, they say servers and storage. A total of 56

percent say they would be undertaking some kind of consolidation, with 44 per-

cent planning server consolidation and 36 percent planning storage consolidation

(see Figure 6).

While the response is not entirely contradictory to the previously stated desiresfor cost reduction, streamlining and the importance to the organization of wide-

area security and network performance, it does beg the question of how they

intend to accomplish their stated goals. Consolidation is never without cost, but

a proper focus on the benets can make the justication process easier. While its

commendable that more than half will embark on consolidation projects in the

coming year, its likely that a signicant portion of the remaining 44 percent would

also benet.

Min driers Bein Consoition EortsWhen queried on the main factors driving consolidation, 84 percent of the compa-

nies rank cost reduction rst (see Figure 7). Simplifying disaster recovery is men-

tioned by 61 percent, and over half, 56 percent, are seeking increased security. Just

30 percent want consolidation to help compliance efforts.

This nal point may seem out of step with the others, but regulatory pressures

have increased dramatically in the last several years, and decentralized data admin-

istration and storage can lead to costly errors and omissions.

Servers

Storage

No consolidation plans

0 10 20 30 40 50

FOCUS OF CONSOlIdaTION EFFORTS OvER NExT 12 MONThS FIgURE 6


44%

36%

44%

Reduce costs

Simpliy disaster recovery

Increase security

Help compliance eorts

0 20 40 60 80 100

CONSOlIdaTION dRIvERS FIgURE 7


84%

61%

56%

30%


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autentiction n Securit

Slightly more than half of the respondents, 52 percent, are using authentication and

security features such as Kerberos or SMB packet signing (see Figure 8). Twenty-six

percent use Kerberos, 17 percent use SMB packet signing and 16 percent use other

authentication and security tools.

One may wonder at the 48 percent who dont use authentication or an additional

layer of encryption/security, but many companies shy away from the additionalcomplexity or the potential, especially with SMB signing, for a performance hit on

the network. Some users express concern about the Kerberos model, which, with

its central server, can constitute a single point of failure. Kerberos and SMB address

different aspects of network security, of course, and are not mutually exclusive.

Remote Bcup: Freuenc n Success Rte n Cost

Three-quarters (74 percent) of the respondents perform remote backups, and thevast majority, 77 percent, perform weekly backups (see Figure 9). Backup success,

however, is not a given. Only 27 percent of those who perform remote backups

claim backups are uniformly successful (see Figure 10). The average success rate is

86 percent, which should be a cause for alarm. Any company that is not achieving

100 percent success, or something close to it, should be examining its procedures,

the points of failure and the cost of failed backups.

The cost of doing a backup is difcult to measure, and many companies dont even

try, as evidenced by answers to a question asking for a cost per location each time

the company performs a backup. Just over half of the respondents who perform

remote backups claim there is no cost associated with the backup. This can prob-ably be more accurately interpreted as we have no idea. Clearly, from the admis-

sion that only 27 percent have routinely successful backups, there has to be a cost

associated with detecting, xing and re-executing the failed backups. Also, there is

always some administrative overhead associated with any remote backup, plus the

allocations in network time.

Indeed, among companies that measure the cost, the average cost is $3,812 per

location. That gure alone, irrespective of success rate, should give any IT manager

reason to take a hard look at remote backup methods and whether the backups

could be eliminated entirely, as with server consolidation.

Any

Kerbos

SMB packet signing

Other

None o the above

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

aUThENTICaTION aNd SECURITy FEaTURES USEd FIgURE 8


52%

26%

17%

16%

48%


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Te WaFS Soution

These are interesting times indeed for IT professionals in multi-location organiza-

tions. The rate of growth and the demands of infrastructural and end-user com-

puting make it nearly impossible to stay ahead of the curve. It becomes challengingto consistently use best practices and the best technology to implement cost-ef-

fective, secure remote services. From the survey, however, its clear that these are

precisely the issues that IT management is tasked with.

And, in all fairness, technology can be as much a hindrance as a help. Legacy

applications, older protocols, business mergers and a demanding installed base

conspire to force the IT managers hand, causing continued reliance on obsoles-

cent equipment, or even implementing more of it. WAN bandwidth, while not a

scarce resource, is an expensive functionality and a recurring cost that needs to be

managed carefully. Over-provisioning is common; its easier to buy more bandwidth

than to reduce and manage the trafc, even while making plans for server consoli-dation, data compression and heightened security.

Indeed, some applications, such as Outlook/Exchange-based e-mail and collabora-

tion, seem to be the embodiment of the proverbial rock and a hard place. Choosing

between local and centralized Exchange servers is a Faustian bargain, with high

deployment cost, multilayered complexity to the domain structure with knotty

backup/failover issues vs. high bandwidth demands caused by chatty, inefcient

protocols, redundant messaging and incessant client/server communication.

Software solutions and upgrades address some of the issues, but the underlying

problem remains.

7

Weekly Monthly Quarterly Twice a year Once a year

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

FREqUENCy OF REMOTE BaCkUP OPERaTIONS FIgURE 9


77%

100%

BaCkUP OPERaTION SUCCESS RaTE FIgURE 10


8%

27%

5074%

60% 7599%

2% 2549%less tn 25% 1%

13%

5%2% 3%


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Conversely, some applications use the WAN very effectively. Bulk data transfers

move data in large, efcient blocks and can be further accelerated with compres-

sion. But the underlying protocols in NFS (Unix/Linux systems) or CIFS

(Windows-based systems) are essentially LAN protocols, not well suited to

the latencies commonly encountered on the WAN.

Wide-area le services (WAFS) address these issues with storage and virtualization

techniques that allow access to remote data centers as though they were local, and

vice versa. Signicantly, they do not require changes in application protocols, nordo they introduce new le systems at the NAS/SAN storage level. The benets are

measurable and sometimes even dramatic, with WAN access for some applications

reduced by as much as 90 percent. WAFS implementations typically facilitate

continuous, real-time updating of backup data, along with full access to backed-up

data from remote or central locations. Because often-used data is cached locally,

most latency issues are eliminated.

WAFS directly addresses server consolidation issues. For one thing, it eliminates

the need for distributed Exchange servers. WAFS also allows many other applica-

tions to be centrally hosted, without increasingand most likely reducingWAN

trafc. WAFS vendors can provide reliable performance and cost statistics, basedon real-world implementations, so that companies can make informed decisions

as they reduce server deployment in remote ofces, with concomitant cost

reductions in support staff or allocated time.

WAFS can be implemented as a service on existing servers, on dedicated general-

purpose servers or in purpose-built hardware. Each scenario has its strengths, and

not all are created equal. Simple compression and virtualization reduces WAN

trafc and lowers latency, but does nothing to enhance security. Kerberos and

SMB may be superimposed on a WAFS to address authentication and packet

integrity. Optional SSL encryption, available in many implementations, can

further increase security.

Hardware-based WAFS implementations, using a dedicated server or an appli-

ance-like conguration such as Brocade Tapestry, are highly desirable from several

standpoints, including performance, ease of management, security and application

specic optimizations. Between the two, the appliance approach is usually prefer-

able because of higher inherent security, lower management overhead and, perhaps

most importantly, vendor expertise.

From the foregoing, its clear that WAFS is a highly desirable solution to the

problems encountered by the respondents of this survey, and that these problems

are common in any company with remote locations that has not yet implementedwide-area le services. IT managers who have not investigated WAFS as a solution

are well advised to do so.

For more information on Brocade Tapestry WAFS solutions, visit:

http://www.brocade.com/products/tapestry.jsp

brocade r3 rootsan technologies bangalore is a branch of microaccess ltd nigeria

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