UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING:ENTERPRISE NETWORK AVAILABILITYAT AN SMB PRICE

WHITE PAPER

SPRING 2010

Continuity of Business Operations 2

An Expensive Proposition 2

High Availability Made Easy 3

What is Virtualization? 3

What is Unstoppable Computing? 4

How Does It Work? 4

Flexible and Scalable 4

A Complete Solution 5

Regardless of the size of your business, you require an IT infrastructure that is continuously available. You relyon your network servers to share your business-critical files, applications, and data, as well as to host your emailand Web environments. In other words, your network is the backbone of your entire operation. Any problemwith server hardware or a critical application means unplanned downtime and a loss of productivitycosting youtime and money.

Server failures that occur during working hours can bring productivity to a complete standstill, and often promptbusiness owners to send employees home for the remainder of the day. On the other hand, failures that occuroutside of business hours require somebody to drive to the office on a weekend, or in the middle of the night, toinvestigate and attempt to resolve the problem. Either way, downtime has a negative impact on yourorganization, with significant direct and indirect costs.

CONTINUITY OF BUSINESS OPERATIONSHigh availability refers to a system that continuously functions, providing uninterrupted access to the companysbusiness-critical data and network resources. Achieving high availability requires multiple redundant servers,which are configured in such a way that a secondary server takes over all functionality in the event that theprimary server fails. For example, a physical server may host your office productivity tools, customer relationshipmanagement application, accounting software, and other software applications you require to effectively run yourbusiness. A separate, identical server would be configured to host the same applications, and would be updatedthroughout the day, to reflect any and all changes from the first server. Therefore, if the primary server were toexperience a failure, the second server could take over its duties, quickly and efficiently, with minimal impact tonormal business operations.

This redundant configuration would be repeated for every server in your network, to ensure that no server failurewould cause a significant business interruption. The ideal goal for high availability is to reduce or altogethereliminate downtime for all critical business functions. With a highly available network, businesses can avoid fatalcrashes, and keep their businesses running.

AN EXPENSIVE PROPOSITIONWhether you are a small business without dedicated IT resources, or a medium-sized business with a small ITstaff that is already stretched thin, continuously managing your corporate network can be a difficult, expensiveproposition. For businesses with multiple sites, the task is even more daunting, since the equipment is typicallyphysically separated from those who are required to manage it effectively.

In addition to the IT resource constraints, the hardware and software required to achieve and maintain a highlyavailable infrastructure can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollarswell out of reach for small- andmedium-sized businesses. And with as many as 10 physical servers comprising the core infrastructure of mostbusinesses, the expertise and bandwidth required to configure, manage, and maintain the environment seems

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UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING

unrealistic for all but the largest of enterprises. As a result, most small- and medium-sized businesses simplymake do with what they have, and deal reactively with outages when they occurputting their network assetsat extraordinary risk for a catastrophic failure.

UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING: HIGH AVAILABILITY MADE EASYIomega and VMware have partnered to develop the ideal solution to this quandary, making it easy andaffordable for small- and medium-sized businesses to build and manage a highly available IT environment.Unlike a traditional highly available infrastructure, which requires a duplicate of each server in the environmentand enterprise-grade routers and switches to effectively manage all network traffic, the two technology leadershave developed a solution called Unstoppable Computing, which provides the same type of functionality for asmall business environment, using as few as two servers. With Unstoppable Computing, you can:

1. Have a highly available infrastructure, for increased server and application uptime2. Employ leading virtualization technology, which enables your entire network infrastructure to be run on one

physical server3. Protect your business-critical data with proven storage technology4. Benefit from automatic failover, for a no touch solution to get your business back up and running

WHAT IS VIRTUALIZATION?Simply stated, virtualization is a technology that partitions a section of a computer or server, then controls thatsection separately from the rest of the device. Often referred to as a computer within a computer, the partitionexecutes programs as if it were its own physical machine. In fact, the partition, also known as a virtualmachine, or VM, is capable of running its own applications, processes, and even a separate operating systemfrom the rest of the computer.

Virtualization is becoming an increasingly popular technology, due to the many benefits it provides organizationsof all sizes. Most businesses utilize a dedicated server model, in which each network server is utilized exclusivelyfor one purpose such as file sharing, or hosting a database or shared application. While this exclusivity isfrequently necessary to ensure proper performance of the non-virtualized device, it also leads to a significantunderutilization of computing resources. In contrast, virtualization dramatically improves the efficiency of thesenetwork resources, enabling the same physical piece of hardware to simultaneously function as multiplecomputing devices. As a result, more can be accomplished with the same physical server device. Therefore,organizations employing virtualization have less hardware to purchase and maintain, which in turn requires lesspower and cooling over the life of the device, and commands less physical space, freeing up valuable real estate.

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UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING

WHAT IS UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING?Unstoppable Computing provides the ideal solution for small- and medium-sized businesses to ensure businesscontinuity and high availability of their business-critical infrastructure, at an affordable price. Combining theirbest-of-breed solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses, VMware and Iomega can help small businessesminimize their downtime and recover quickly from unplanned outages. Comprised of two physical servers,virtualization software, and a network storage device, Unstoppable Computing completely automates networkfailover, in the event of an outage.

VMware High Availability (HA) automatically shifts the workload to the secondary server, in the event of aprimary server failure. The secondary server then fetches the most recent snapshot from the storage device,from which it restarts the affected server or application. This all occurs automatically, with no humanintervention required. This means outages that occur in the middle of the night can be rectified while you sleep,with your environment up and running normally by the time you arrive in the officeduring normal workinghours. Likewise, a failure in a remote office will not affect the business operation, without the need for IT staff totravel to the location, or to experience the frustration of walking an office manager or salesperson throughtechnically complex recovery steps. Theres also no need to send employees home for the day while you work ona recovery solutionthe system will be bring itself back up, quickly and efficiently, so your employees can getback to work.

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UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING

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HOW DOES IT WORK?Using VMware vSphere Essentials Plus, you can host your entire networkapplication servers, file servers, anddatabase servers, as well as Web and Email serverson a single physical hardware device. Simply installvSphere and create the virtual machines on both physical servers, then tie the two servers together in just a fewclicks, using failover technology. Next, install the operating environment andapplications on the primary server, as usual. When the primary physical server hasbeen completely configured, vSphere creates the VM files, which are then storedon the Iomega StorCenter network storage device, and are accessible by bothphysical servers.

Using VMware snapshot backups throughout the day, the server environment issaved to the StorCenter device for continuous data protection. If the primaryserver fails, vSphere retrieves the VM file from the StorCenter and then replays iton the secondary server. The secondary server then contacts the StorCenter toaccess the most recent snapshot, for maximum business continuity. Best of all,this process happens automatically, with no human intervention required. Yournetwork can be up and running quickly. You dont have to lose sleep, or send anybody home. In contrast,without a high availability solution in place, you would be forced to reinstall the operating system and each ofyour applicationsbit by bit, one-by-one.

FLEXIBLE AND SCALABLEUnstoppable Computing is a flexible solution that scales up or down, to fit the specific needs of yourenvironment. Utilizing vSphere, you can produce virtual machines, enabling your entire environment to behosted on a single physical server. And any StorCenter network storage device can be employed in theUnstoppable Computing infrastructure, providing you with the ability to scale between 1TB and 8TB of storagecapacity. You choose the number of VMs and the storage capacity that best fits your needsand your budget.

A COMPLETE SOLUTIONComprised of best-of-breed solutions from VMware and Iomega, Unstoppable Computing provides small- andmedium-sized businesses with a high availability network at an SMB price. With Unstoppable Computing, youcan sleep better knowing your network is protected by a robust business continuity solution. UnstoppableComputing helps small businesses reduce network downtime, the number of servers required to run thenetwork, and initial and ongoing costsall while increasing stability, reliability, and productivity.

High availability. Flexibility. Peace of mind. Thats Unstoppable Computing.

UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING

2010 Iomega Corporation. All rights reserved. Iomega, StorCenter, and the stylized i logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Iomega Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. EMC, Lifeline, and Retrospect are registered trademarks ofEMC Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United Statesand/or other countries. Macintosh and Mac are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Certain other product names, brand names and company names may be trademarks or designations or theirrespective owners. Iomega's specific customer support policies (including fees for services) and procedures change as technology and market conditions dictate. Product in photos may vary slightly from product in package. Product capacities are specified in gigabytes(GB), where 1GB = 1,000,000,000 Bytes. To obtain information about Iomegas current policies please visit Iomega at www.iomega.com or call 1-888-4iomega (1-888-446-6342). UCWP-0410-04