storage for virtual environments

16
Storage for Virtual Environments Storage virtualization is still a fairly new technology, but it is gradually gaining prominence in data centers across businesses of all sizes. Although the potential for storage virtualization and the benefits it delivers are great, there is still some confusion in the market about what it can do and what it is all about. While this technology continues to gain momentum, it is important to have a solid grasp on the concepts of storage virtualization and how it is rapidly changing the way storage is managed. This E-Guide, featuring articles from SearchStorage.com and SearchServerVirtualization.com, provides a complete outline of storage virtualization and other virtualization techniques, including: • Virtualization Trends in 2007 • Integrating Storage and Server Virtualization • Disaster Recovery Options for VMware users • Five Tips for Understanding Virtualization • The VMware and NetApp Integration Sponsored By: E-Guide

Upload: cameroon45

Post on 05-Dec-2014

486 views

Category:

Technology


4 download

DESCRIPTION

 

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Storage for Virtual Environments

Storage for VirtualEnvironmentsStorage virtualization is still a fairly new technology, but it is gradually

gaining prominence in data centers across businesses of all sizes.

Although the potential for storage virtualization and the benefits it

delivers are great, there is still some confusion in the market about

what it can do and what it is all about.

While this technology continues to gain momentum, it is important to

have a solid grasp on the concepts of storage virtualization and how it

is rapidly changing the way storage is managed.

This E-Guide, featuring articles from SearchStorage.com and

SearchServerVirtualization.com, provides a complete outline of

storage virtualization and other virtualization techniques, including:

• Virtualization Trends in 2007

• Integrating Storage and Server Virtualization

• Disaster Recovery Options for VMware users

• Five Tips for Understanding Virtualization

• The VMware and NetApp Integration

Sponsored By:

E-Guide

Page 2: Storage for Virtual Environments

Storage for Virtual Environments

Table of Contents

Page 2 of 16Sponsored by:

Table of Contents:The Virtual Machinist: Virtualization trends in 2007

Top five tips for understanding virtualization

Integrating storage and server virtualization

VMware users explore disaster recovery options

VMware and NetApp in cahoots?

Resources from Insight

Storage for VirtualEnvironments

E-Guide

Page 3: Storage for Virtual Environments

The Virtual Machinist: Virtualization trends in 2007

By Alessandro Perilli

Today what we call server virtualization is a compelling technology, quickly pervading worldwide data centers with

the promise of cost-savings and more efficient management.

While this is true, there are a lot of factors which concurrently reduce the benefits of server virtualization: high

starting costs for hardware, complexity and discrepancies in software licensing, lack of support, lack of experienced

professionals and training and lack of tools able to address long-term issues.

Server virtualization is a revolutionary technology, for sure, but it's still very immature in several aspects. I think

the shortcomings listed above will drive future market trends.

First of all SANs (Storage Area Networks) will become a mandatory companion for virtualization, obliging even

smaller companies to purchase network storage equipment. Some, however, will fall back to cheaper Network

Attached Storage, but only for very small projects.

To reduce costs and be ready to scale up, cheaper iSCSI models with modular architectures will be the preferred

choice.

At the same time virtualization will drive sales of high-density multi-core CPUs, which leads to higher consolidation

ratios. A single eight-core host will easily accommodate 32 virtual machines on average, which is more than enough

to build a complete datacenter for many SMBs.

Get ready for overkill: Intel is working on an 80-core prototype, available in production within five years.

In this scenario of rapid advances, hardware will more redundant and reliable than ever, obliging customers to buy

more expensive hosts with each physical component doubled, including motherboard and CPU.

Looking beyond the hardware scene, this year vendors will start to satisfy a moderate demand for enhanced disas-

ter recovery capabilities in virtualization platforms. This is good news for those running enterprise data centers with

severe high-availability requirements.

In the coming year, more and more companies will want traditional IT solutions to be supported in virtualization

scenarios. Also, demand for application virtualization solutions will increase. These changes will bring demands for

software houses to reconsider their support and licensing models and will push the evolution of licenses onto yet

another new path. I think that usage tracking of physical resources is the best way to go.

Anyway, changing licensing models will take lot of time, and there is almost no chance for a neat, new model to

appear this year.

Storage for Virtual Environments

The Virtual Machinist: Virtualization trends in 2007

Page 3 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 4: Storage for Virtual Environments

Going further on software side, the most compelling issue customers will face will be management of hundreds,

even thousands of virtual machines (VMs). Already, some vendors are offering data center automation tools to

streamline VM management. Those first out of the gate with products have a chance to be very successful, espe-

cially later in 2007 when VM sprawl begins to be a problem for early adopters. Expect to see introductions of many

virtualization management tools this year.

All in all, server virtualization is a technology doomed to success.

Look for excitement on the client side. Application virtualization market will start growing in the second half of

the year, after Microsoft, Citrix and Symantec will attempt to streamline application distribution by tweaking and

regurgitating products acquired during 2006.

Storage for Virtual Environments

The Virtual Machinist: Virtualization trends in 2007

Page 4 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 5: Storage for Virtual Environments

Top five tips for understanding virtualization

By Jack Loftus

Virtualization is a hot trend, but that doesn't mean every IT shop has to jump on the bandwagon just yet. There

are some shops that just won't need this technology no matter how big the hype becomes this year.

For those shops that decide virtualization is the right move for them, there has to be a complete understanding of

existing resources, hardware and applications before they take action.

A well-virtualized data center is a well-educated data center, and these top tips, provided by U.K.-based C&C

Technology Consulting's practice leader Shane Colombo, put users well on their way to understanding how this

technology could work best for them.

1. Understand your infrastructure. Before you make a decision about virtualization, it is imperative to

learn about your shop's existing infrastructure. This includes the numbers and types of servers, operating

systems, CPU and memory utilization, application names and versions. "Without a thorough understanding

of these components, it would be difficult to understand how virtualization technologies could best be used

within your organization," Colombo said.

2. Don't virtualize everything. Although virtualization is a flexible technology and can bring benefits to a

wide variety of environments, it is not the answer for everything. Operating system virtualization provides

the most benefit when it replaces a physical server that is underutilized. As an example, Colombo cited a

server running Active Directory that is using a small percentage of its processing power. "[This situation] is

therefore ideal for virtualization," he said.

3. Understand your administration model. Virtualization brings a new style of administration that may

impact the existing processes within an organization. Realize that existing server teams with provisioning

responsibilities could have to adapt to this new model in order to create new virtual servers.

4. Understand the applications you have. "Before virtualizing any applications, it is best practice to under-

stand exactly what applications are included in the estate, what versions they are currently using and how

they work," Colombo said. When you have a complete understanding of your applications, you'll be able to

make the best decisions when considering virtualizing those applications.

5. Make capacity planning decisions. Understanding the infrastructure that will be used to virtualize

an environment is a mustçespecially the specification and capacity of the chosen systems. If you do it

incorrectly, then the solution you choose may not provide the expected performance and service levels.

Also, with open source applications—especially with virtualization on a Linux platform—there is a vast com-

munity of users who can help you understand the various virtualization technologies present today.

Storage for Virtual Environments

Top five tips for understanding virtualization

Page 5 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 6: Storage for Virtual Environments

Insight Integrated Systems (Insight IS), a division of Insight Investments, Corp., delivers high quality information-centric business solutions and services leveraging people, processes and technology. We enable our clients to maximize the return on their technology investments while maintaining close alignment with their entire business strategy. At the same time, Insight reduces technology risk; optimizes capital expenditure; provides timely market intelligence and advice; offers smart refresh and migration options, and upgrade alternatives.

For cutting-edge and cost-effective storage solutions, contact Insight Integrated Systems for a needs based analysis.

Additional information about our technology solutions and services is available online at www.insightintegrated.com

600 City Parkway West, 5th Floor

Orange, CA 92868 (714) 939-2300

www.insightintegrated.com

Page 7: Storage for Virtual Environments

Integrating storage and server virtualization

By Rick Cook

What you will learn about virtualization: Knowing your storage and server hardware and checking its compati-

bility is a critical step in integrating virtual servers and virtual storage. This tip offers practical advice for integrating

virtualization products.

Storage virtualization remains a fairly new technology, and Windows server virtualization is even newer, yet it's tak-

ing time to make sure both kinds of virtualization can play well together. But, this is happening. Increasingly over

time, if you encounter problems regarding their compatibility, those issues are likely to involve poor performance

rather than complete failure. To ensure adequate performance, it is important to fully understand both the server

and storage virtualization products you are attempting to integrate.

Of course, you've got to know what you're virtualizing. One of the first steps in any virtualization project, whether

it's storage or server and especially both, is to conduct an inventory of the servers, storage devices and such

that will be involved. This includes things such as the host bus adapters (HBA) and storage area network (SAN)

switches, and the software and firmware revisions.

Check the hardware compatibility lists (HCL) for both virtualization products and make sure your configuration con-

forms. This is getting easier as virtualization vendors work to make their products interoperable. For example,

VMware Inc., now owned by EMC Corp., is aggressively promoting its VMware Infrastructure 3, which ties VMware's

ESX Server 3 and related products with storage virtualization, and associated hardware and software. Recently, both

Emulex Corp. and QLogic Corp. announced that they now have HBAs that are supported by VMware's architecture.

It takes some additional steps to integrate virtual servers and virtual storage. (For one example, see this study,

which was conducted to determine if using virtual storage in virtual server environments makes sense.)

It's best to start by virtualizing the lightly loaded servers, both for cost-benefit and performance reasons. If you

have, say, three servers and each has less than 30% utilization, you'll see more immediate economic benefits by

virtualizing them all on one server than if you start with heavily loaded servers running high-intensity applications.

Also, your operation will take less of a hit while you iron out any performance problems than if you were trying to

start with the heavily loaded server.

Performance issues

The surprising thing about modern virtualization is how little overhead it adds, but it still increases cost in terms of

time, performance and capacity. Of course, this added cost is well worth it if you see benefits. However, you need

to keep track of costs. That means you need to monitor the system's underlying performance with tools, such as

Iometer and vendor-specific tools.

Storage for Virtual Environments

Integrating storage and server virtualization

Page 7 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 8: Storage for Virtual Environments

There are some kinds of storage you don't want to virtualize in a virtual server installation, notably those directly

involved in running the virtual machines themselves. VMware, for instance, recommends keeping a VMFS (VMware's

native file system) partition on either locally attached storage or LUN-0 (logical unit number) of your SAN to use for

swap space. Since virtual machine systems rely heavily on swapping so it's important that this partition be sized

and configured for best performance. For this reason, VMware doesn't recommend putting the swap partition on a

network attached storage (NAS) device. For the same reason, the VMware kernel core dump partition (vmkcore)

should also be locally attached or in LUN-0.

Storage for Virtual Environments

Integrating storage and server virtualization

Page 8 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 9: Storage for Virtual Environments

ACCELERATING GROWTHWITH SERVER VIRTUALIZATIONFOR SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

ACCELERATING GROWTH

Virtualization has been viewed as an option primarily for large enterprises with sizeable IT budgets to manage the prolifera-

tion of servers, to increase server utilization and to support large mainframes. Now, high-performance workstations and servers are making virtualization a possibility for small and medium busi-nesses (SMBs). A recent Yankee Group report, SMB Infrastructure Goes Virtual, noted, “As hardware becomes more powerful, virtu-alization will become a necessity – even for businesses running a handful of servers.”

Insight Investments, Corp., a rapidly growing systems integrator and technology leasing firm in Orange, California, epitomizes the benefits that rapidly growing organizations can enjoy through vir-tualization. Insight’s server consolidation – which involved consoli-dating 15 physical servers onto three VMware ESX servers – resulted in greater IT resource utilization, freed up server-room space, and cut cooling, power, and operating costs by an estimated 65%.

This paper examines the pro-

cess Insight Investments followed

in its successful server and data

consolidation project. For medium-sized enterprises with limited IT staffs and budgets,

it provides real-world feedback about how to use virtualization to increase utilization,

improve high availability, minimize routine maintenance, and provide ongoing

improvements to a computing infrastructure.

Insight Investments, Corp., server consolidation resulted in greater IT resource utilization, freed up server room space, and cut cooling, power, and operat-ing costs by an estimated 65%.

Insight Investments, Corp., server consolidation resulted in greater IT resource utilization, freed up server room space, and cut cooling, power, and operat-ing costs by an estimated 65%.

Page 10: Storage for Virtual Environments

VMware users explore disaster recovery options

By Alex Barrett

Improving your disaster recovery posture gets a lot of lip service, but for most companies, not a lot of action. But

IT managers are finding that using virtualization software can make it easier—and cheaper—to move disaster

recovery out of the planning phase and in to production.

"DR's been on my to-do list for much longer than I care to admit," said John Kutz, director of information services

and systems at Minneapolis, Minn.-based Verifications, Inc., a provider of pre-employment background checks. Last

year, when the company began to look in to VMware virtualization as a means to improve utilization and reduce

infrastructure, Kutz also discovered that virtualization would help them implement DR. That realization sealed the

deal. "The ability to do DR drove us to making the [virtualization] selection much more attractive," Kutz said.

Working with VMPowered, A VMware Authorized Consultant (VAC) in Circle Pines, Minn., Verifications began replicat-

ing its virtual machines to their disaster recovery site 200 miles away using the SnapMirror feature on the Network

Appliance 3020 disk arrays at their primary and secondary sites, which copies the changes made to a snapshot of

the virtual machines (VMs).

"What I like is how [virtualization and DR] complement one another—I get my application and my OS in one fell

swoop," Kutz said, without having to have an exact replica of server hardware sitting idle at the remote site. "All I

know is that within 20 minutes I can bring replicated VMs back online," he said.

Array replication vs. host-based replication

But when it came to replicating its VMs, Verifications went down a path that not all IT shops can afford. Array-

based replication software typically comes as an add-on license to an already pricey storage area network (SAN)

set-up. A replication license on your typical Fibre Channel SAN device usually starts at around $10,000 per device—

of which you need two—plus the cost of Fibre Channel-to-IP conversion equipment, said Eric Schott, director of

product management at iSCSI SAN vendor EqualLogic. Schott added that EqualLogic does not charge extra for

replication on its arrays.

Furthermore, IT managers that choose array-based replication need to pay careful attention to how the replication

is configured. At its core, array-based replication doesn't replicate virtual machines per se, but the volumes that

they are stored in. As such, virtualization and storage administrators need to ensure that all VM files that need to

be replicated are stored in a properly replicated volume.

Host-based replication software is an arguably simpler way to steel virtual machines against disaster.

Gene Barnes, IT manager at S.H. Smith and Company, Inc., an independent wholesale insurance broker in West

Hartford, Conn., set up high availability and disaster recovery for six servers using a combination of VMware GSX

(now VMware Server) and replication software from Double-Take Software in Southborough, Mass. Barnes installed

VMware GSX on a free server and used VMware's old P2V Assistant physical-to-virtual migration tool to create back-

up virtual versions of the company's Exchange, file and application servers. He then installed Double-Take within

the primary application servers and set it up to replicate to their virtualized clones on the GSX host.

Storage for Virtual Environments

VMware users explore disaster recovery options

Page 10 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 11: Storage for Virtual Environments

Barnes also uses Double-Take to replicate a file server at a remote office in Needham, Mass. back to a virtual

machine in West Hartford headquarters, helping Barnes ensure that the file server always gets backed up. "We

don't have an IT presence in Needham; by replicating [the file server] down here, we just back it up using our

normal SAN and backup software," he said.

Pricing for Double-Take in a virtual environment runs $7,995 for up to five replicated Windows VMs, regardless of

where they are running in an ESX cluster. The company also offers a more affordable replication option for VMware

users that leverages VMware's own built-in snapshot capabilities. Announced in February, Double-Take for VMware

Infrastructure 3 (VI3) runs in the ESX service console and will replicate up to 10 VMs for $2,495.

Other than price, the advantage of running Double-Take from within the service console is that users can replicate

any VMware supported operating system—not just Windows—without having to load any software into the guest,

said Dave Demlow, Double-Take CTO. The downside, however, is running within the service console doesn't give the

replication software as granular a view of the replicated system.

"When you're running within the VM, there are a lot more things you can do by being aware of the specific

operating system, by optimizing failover, and by deciding which files really need to be replicated and which don't,"

Demlow said. "We can really pick and choose what we replicate."

Ultimately though, keeping the entry cost to disaster recovery low is key, said Chris Ackerberg, vice president of global

sales and marketing at Vizioncore Inc. in Buffalo Grove Ill., whose esxReplicator competes against Double-Take.

"We're not going for the top tier of organizations," Ackerberg said—those with the budget and expertise in house to

do array-based replication. "We're going for the next group of people that would like their information to be repli-

cated, but don't have a ton of money." In some cases, those can be departmental IT managers within a large

organization and "that don't want to contact their SAN administrator."

Vizioncore introduced a new version of esxReplicator last month. Among other features, version 2.0 include better

performance, VMotion, DRS and VirtualCenter integration, and the ability to bulk load VM images and resynch if

connectivity is lost between the VM and its replica. To keep costs low, esxReplicator copies virtual machine files to

an offline VM, Ackerberg said, which is only turned in the event of a disaster. That way, "there's no operating cost,

no OS licensing, no maintenance," he explained.

But at $499 per replicated virtual machine, some experienced VMware administrators may still forego a commercial

tool like esxReplicator and simply write some scripts that take a snapshot of a VM and copy it off-site. To that,

Ackerberg said, "For $500, we give you a GUI and scheduling abilities. Sure, some guy could achieve the same

thing using home grown scripts, but they could get disgruntled or get hit by a bus. What we do is take a lot of

complicated Linux scripting and wrap it in to a package that any admin can use."

Even with all these choices, what if IT admins are still discontented with their DR options? Stay tuned, said

EqualLogic's Schott: at VMworld next September, don't be surprised if VMware reveals new products and

functionality that further streamlines the protection of a virtual machine against disaster.

Storage for Virtual Environments

VMware users explore disaster recovery options

Page 11 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 12: Storage for Virtual Environments

VMware and NetApp in cahoots?

By Alex Barrett

Sources close to VMware Inc. and Network Appliance Inc. say that engineers at the two firms are working closely to

improve integration between VMware's ESX virtualization platform and NetApp's storage software, specifically its

snapshot capabilities.

"They are basically developing a SnapManager for VMware, just like they have for SQL Server or Exchange," said

a systems integrator familiar with the companies' roadmaps. Right now, NetApp storage can do a snapshot of

virtual machines at the logical unit number (LUN) level, he explained, but "NetApp can't directly quiesce a virtual

machine today."

That's not to say that people don't use NetApp snapshot technologies in VMware environments today; they do. But

in order to get a consistent copy of a VMware virtual machine, they need to use VMware's own snapshot function,

which consumes resources on the host. In contrast, NetApp performs its snapshots on the array, consuming no CPU

resources.

Today, integrating the two technologies also requires some VMware scripting prowess. For example, in the NetApp

bulletin "Five ways to use NetApp SnapShot copies and VMware VI3," NetApp professional services consultant Mike

Slisinger describes one joint customer, Loyola Marymount University (LMU), which uses NetApp Snapshots to

protect its VMware environment. To do so, "LMU developed its own script to automate backups and is working with

NetApp to document its implementation," Slisinger wrote. "This script uses the VMware snapshot capability to

quiesce the virtual machine so that a consistent NetApp Snapshot copy can be created."

NetApp neither confirms nor denies

A NetApp exec's corroborates the notion of collaboration between the two companies. Server virtualization "creates

a powerful need for storage virtualization," said Phil Brotherton, NetApp senior director of enterprise alliances and

solutions. "VMware integration is good today, but we are committed to tightening it up even more."

"VMware," Brotherton added, "is my life right now."

By NetApp's own account, catering to VMware users is critical to its future. As it stands, the company counts more

than 4,000 of its systems connected to VMware ESX—and many more if you include servers running VMware Server,

the company's free product, Brotherton said. Given market predictions, that number will only increase. "NetApp

believes that, within three years, 50% of servers will be running within VMware or some form of virtualization."

Brotherton estimated that about 40% of NetApp customers connect their arrays to ESX hosts via Fibre Channel,

another 40% via iSCSI, and 20% via NFS.

Storage for Virtual Environments

VMware and NetApp in cahoots?

Page 12 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 13: Storage for Virtual Environments

NetApp storage software already has a lot to offer VMware environments, Brotherton added. Take FlexClone, the snap-

shot implementation built on top of the FlexVol flexible volume manager in Data ONTAP 7G. When creating a clone,

"we only store the changed blocks, so you basically get a clone for free," Brotherton said. In storage-hungry VMware

environments, the ability to consume minimal resources when cloning virtual machines is a compelling feature.

It should be noted that NetApp is not the only vendor working to integrate its storage software with VMware virtual

environments. Vizioncore with its esxRanger and esxReplicator backup and replication software has emerged as one

of the leading third-party VMware tool providers; replication vendors like Double-Take Software have VMware-cen-

tric versions of their products, and all the major backup software vendors—Symantec Corp., CommVault, and EMC

Corp./Legato, to name a few—have announced integration with VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), VMware's tool

for offloading the backup of virtual machines from the ESX host.

EMC no obstacle

In the technology industry, it's rare to find a company that's enthusiastic about its primary competitor. But even

though EMC owns VMware outright—and will continue to own about 90% of it following VMware's initial public offer-

ing this year—Brotherton is undeterred.

"VMware has been absolutely great as a partner and operates on a very level playing field," Brotherton gushed.

"They treat all the major vendors equally, including EMC."

The IPO should only strengthen that position. "It will level the playing field even more, making it contractually

level."

Storage for Virtual Environments

VMware and NetApp in cahoots?

Page 13 of 16Sponsored by:

Page 14: Storage for Virtual Environments

600 City Parkway West 5th Floor Orange, CA 92868 (714) 939-2300 www.insightintegrated.com

The Insight Virtualization Assessment is a server resource utilization monitoring tool that provides an integrated set of analysis, planning, and decision support functions that enables accelerated, more accurate and benchmarked infrastructure assessment services. Delivered as both an internal and a hosted application service, it enables comprehensive server utilization assessments. These assessments in turn help in intelligently virtualizing and consolidating data center infrastructure, redeploying strategic IT assets, and optimizing workload distribution. Built for agent-less implementation, Insight’s Virtualization Assessments are able to collect infrastructure data quickly, provide

improved visibility of heterogeneous, complex IT environments, and deliver critical insights into resource utilization for driving intelligent infrastructure capacity purchase and allocation decisions. This information can be leveraged for comparative analysis and benchmarking to help guide server consolidation and capacity optimization decisions for the enterprise. It can also help improve:

• Test and development • Environments • Disaster recovery design • Space/heat/power conservation • Server consolidation • Asset management

Key Features

• Web-based capacity planning and analysis client

• Agent-less implementation

• Data collection across multiple platforms

• Comprehensive discovery of servers in minutes, and complete inventory in hours

• Rich set of capacity utilization metrics

• Industry data for comparisons and benchmarking

• Scenario modeling and “what-if” analysis

• Trend analysis and predictions

• Anomaly detection and alerts

• Ad hoc analysis and reporting

Overview

Virtualization Assessment Service

Page 15: Storage for Virtual Environments

What are the benefits of an Insight Virtualization Assessment?

© 2

007

Insig

ht In

vest

men

ts

P

S-00

1

Insight Integrated Systems (Insight IS), a division of Insight Investments, Corp., delivers high quality information-centric business solutions and services leveraging people, processes, and technology. We enable our clients to maximize the return on their technology investments while maintaining close alignment with their entire business strategy. At the same time, Insight reduces technology risk; optimizes capital expenditure; provides timely market intelligence and advice; offers smart refresh and migration options; and supplies upgrade alternatives.

For cutting-edge and cost-effective IT solutions, contact Insight Integrated Systems for a needs based analysis.

Additional information about our technology solutions and services is available online at www.insightintegrated.com

Virtualization Assessments are used as analysis, planning, and decision support tools to direct the key phases within a variety of infrastructure assessment projects, as described below: • Assess – the current state of an infrastructure’s workload capacity through comprehensive discovery and inventory of IT assets. Measure server loads and resource utilization across various elements of the IT infrastructure—including by function, location, and environment. • Plan – for capacity optimization through detailed utilization analysis, benchmarking, trending, and identification of capacity optimization alternatives. Identify resources, and establish plan for virtualization, hardware purchase, or redeployment. • Decide – on the optimal solution by evaluating various alternatives through scenario modeling and “what-if” analyses. Determine which alternative best meets the business objectives. • Monitor – resource utilization through anomaly detection and alerts based on benchmarked thresholds. Help generate recommendations to ensure ongoing capacity optimization.

• Nationwide VMWare Certified Consultants

• Vendor Independent

• Insight is ISO 9001 Certified

How are Virtual Assessments Used?

About Insight IS

Discoverable, Recoverable, Fast, and Secure

Insight Investment Corporation is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company. By delivering timely and consistent high-quality products, services, and information to our customers, we seek to find long term solutions by discovering and addressing the root causes. Our commitment to quality and satisfaction is a critical component in our Professional Services translating to high levels of customer satisfaction and results.

• Company specific power, cooling & cost saving projections

• Agent-less assessment tool

• Inventory your current server assets

• Performance statistics across the entire infrastructure

• In-depth analysis of server CPU, disk, and memory utilization

• Identify opportunities to consolidate and rationalize complex, heterogeneous data

• What-if scenario modeling

• Industry benchmarking

• Procurement planning

Other Services • Backup Assessment

• Storage Assessment

• Data Migration

• Implementation Services

• Custom Services

Page 16: Storage for Virtual Environments

Storage for Virtual Environments

Resources from Insight

Page 16 of 16Sponsored by:

Resources from Insight

Insight Integrated Systems Professional Services

Insight Integrated Systems Virtualization, Planning and Monitoring Solutions

A virtualized infrastructure from servers to storage maximizes utilization, performance, resiliency, and ROI the

NetApp-VMware Solution

Insight Integrated Systems Partner Philosophy

Receive an IDC Analyst paper in your FREE VMware Virtualization Kit from Insight Integrated Systems

Meet with Insight

About Insight

Insight Integrated Systems (Insight IS), a division of Insight Investments, Corp., delivers high quality information-

centric business solutions and services leveraging people, processes and technology.

Being vendor independent, Insight IS helps select only the best technologies from the best vendors—assuring client

companies remain at the forefront of technology without the inherent cost. Insight remains highly selective, aligning

with vendors who are compatible in their goals and objectives, both from a technology and a business perspective.

As a result, you can be confident we deliver the right solutions and breadth of services that offer clients the great-

est flexibility and return on their investments.

We enable our clients to maximize the return on their technology investments while maintaining close alignment

with their entire business strategy. At the same time, Insight reduces technology risk; optimizes capital expendi-

ture; provides timely market intelligence and advice; offers smart refresh and migration options; and supplies

upgrade alternatives.

Insight helps small, medium and large business win in the technology age with the most comprehensive set of inte-

grated services in the industry today. The result is the most efficient running IT systems program available today.

For cutting-edge and cost-effective IT solutions, contact Insight Integrated Systems for a needs based analysis.

Additional informtion about our technology solutions and services is available online at www.insightintegrated.com.