DATA CENTER OPTIMIZATIONTHE CHALLENGES | THE SOLUTION | THE BENEFITS

BUILDING AN OPTIMIZED DATA CENTER.

While your storage needs continue to expand, the amount of space you have continues to shrink. We have the people, the partners and the plan to design a more scalabale and efficient framework for your storage infrastructure.

THE CHALLENGES

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It’s the main challenge facing IT professionals today — data sprawl. Bits of data here, there and everywhere. It wreaks havoc on management, complicates organization and results in a lot of wasted space and added costs. Not to mention, it severely reduces processing power. Here are some of the watch-outs:

DISPARATE STORAGE ENVIRONMENTS — All too often, storage setups were built without the big picture in mind. A patchwork solution here. A quick fix there. All different systems. All part of the problem.

PROLIFERATION OF THE CLOUD — As storage moves more to the cloud, the cloud contributes more to data sprawl, forcing archiving and accountability issues.

MOBILITY — Today’s workforce is mobile. And while that may be good for your organization, it forces the spread of data all over the map, complicating backup and hindering flexibility.

BIG DATA INITIATIVES — 42% of organizations have either already invested in big data technologies or plan to do so soon.1 Be prepared for the more complex sprawl that comes along with it.

DATA SPRAWL ZONE. HARD HAT REQUIRED.

1 Gartner Survey Finds 42 Percent of IT Leaders Have Invested in Big Data or Plan to Do So Within a Year, 20132 IDC White Paper, Expert Integrated Systems: A Next-Generation Computing Platform, April 2012

Between 2005 and 2015, the number of virtual machines is projected to increase by tenfold, while the number of physical servers will remain the same.2

MAXIMUM FLEXIBILITY — When your data center is optimized, it’s ready for the demands of today as well as those of the future. It’s scalable, flexible and, most importantly, adaptable to long- and short-term challenges.

COST SAVINGS — When data sprawl is eliminated, so too are the excess costs associated with resources, storage, and power and cooling.

EFFICIENCY — Your storage infrastructure will make the most of its existing space and resources when it’s consolidated, optimized and tiered appropriately.

THE BENEFITS

With a robust data center optimization solution, your organization will enjoy many benefits, like:

A DATA CENTER THAT RUNS LIKE NEW.

THE SOLUTION

Without the proper foundation, your storage infrastructure cannot grow. It needs to be scalable, efficient and able to account for existing resources. With the help of CDW, together we can determine where the strengths and weaknesses are in order to best address them and develop a solution that’s built for the future.

CREATING A SOLID FOUNDATION.

of IT professionals reported that storage-related barriers posed an obstacle to meeting performance expectations for their data center.3

3 IDC Report, IDC Predictions 2013: Competing on the 3rd Platform, 2012

64%

STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION — When you can view all of your storage devices as one, you can eliminate disparate storage systems and combat sprawl. You will also simplify the management process and make data searching a whole lot easier. Utilization rates will go up. Power and cooling costs will go down. And you will be better equipped to accommodate a heavy cloud computing-based environment.

DEDUPLICATION — One of the best ways to eliminate data sprawl, deduplication searches out and eliminates redundant forms of data within organizations. This process is designed to free up storage space as well as reduce power and cooling costs.

STORAGE TIERING — Think of this as the blueprint for your data. Everything needs to be assigned a space based on its importance, age and usage. This process is known as storage tiering.

• Higher tiers typically contain an organization’s most essential data as well as flash-based devices, which run at high speeds and need to be highly available.

• Middle tiers generally are reserved for HDD-based storage. They don’t require the same speed and accessibility as flash, but are still usable.

• Lower tiers are used for long-term archiving. They hold tape drive technology, the slowest and least available form of storage. As data within an organization becomes less essential, it should be moved to the lower tiers of storage.

CDW.com/datastorage | 800.800.4239

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To learn more, contact an account manager, call 800.800.4239 or visit CDW.com/datastorage

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WHY CDW?

YOUR GUIDE TO MANAGING YOUR INFRASTRUCTURE.THE PEOPLE — Well-versed in the latest storage technology and trends, our account managers and solution architects have the experience and knowledge to help you construct a storage infrastructure that’s fully optimized.

THE PARTNERS — We partner with the best of the best. These industry leaders provide best- in-class products that span all areas of storage solutions. With a vendor-agnostic approach, we can tailor a solution to your exact needs.

THE PLAN — From the initial assessment and discovery to the site survey and product selection, all the way through the installation and ongoing management — we are here to support you for the entire lifecycle of your data center.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES.

OUR PARTNERS

Leap ahead with an advanced storage platform that delivers the leading performance, value and scale you need to manage the most demanding SAN and NAS workloads. The FAS platform is built on the NetApp® Data ONTAP® storage operating system. Together they deliver advanced flash and storage efficiencies that boost productivity and return on your investment.

Single-platform Simpana® software takes a holistic approach to data management with a flexible and extensible architecture that helps enterprises reduce risk, improve operational efficiencies, cut costs, and derive more value from their data and information.

Nimble Storage thinks enterprises shouldn’t compromise on performance, capacity, ease of use or price. So they developed the first storage architecture designed from the ground up to seamlessly integrate SSDs with high-capacity disks, all to give you powerful performance and capacity efficiency, easier backups and DR and stress-free operations.

WE’VE GOT THE PROOF

WHITE PAPER: STORAGE

For more information on storage solutions, check out our enterprise white paper and discover what increased flexibility and efficiency can do for your organization.

Read it at CDW.com/enterprise-storage

CDW.com/datastorage | 800.800.4239

AWARDS AND CERTIFICATIONS

• NetApp Star Partner• NetApp Service Provider Partner• NetApp FlexPod Premium Partner• NetApp Backup and Recovery Specialization• NetApp Server Virtualization Specialization• NetApp Storage Infrastructure Specialization• Commvault Americas Partner of the Year — 2013• Commvault Americas Reseller of the Year — 2012