The IBM Storage Specialty Elite designation is for business partners that sell IBM storage as part of their unique business model and seek to continue improving the IBM system storage solutions. To obtain this designation, Evolving Solutions had to demonstrate more proficient skills and meet specific revenue targets. IBM Business Partners that meet the eligibility criteria receive access to a comprehensive set of benefits that can be leveraged to help clients improve their data storage environment and more efficiently manage and grow their systems.

“This designation recognizes and honors IBM Business Partners who have made a significant investment in skills and certifications,” said Jaime Gmach, President of Evolving Solutions. “This certification assures our customers that we possess the skills and capability to successfully configure and deploy IBM Storage solutions.”

View the full press release.

“The tool can monitor for failures at the hardware, OS, or application layer, alert you of a problem and even initiate a failover to an alternate site,” she writes. “The tool will be able to test your DR plans and validate RTOs and RPOs non-disruptively.”

What do you think? Is this the direction in which data backup and recovery is headed?

Read Rachel’s full blog post about “The Future of Backup and Recovery”.

A common question I receive is “Why should I consider 10GB in my network?”  There are many reasons why customers should consider 10GB and the way market trends are moving, the question will turn from “why” to “when”.

Virtualization is driving the need: Virtualization has been a key for making IT staff’s everywhere look at 10GB.  Traditionally, each server had its own separate physical connection to the network.  As more servers become virtualized, typically the BladeCenter or Server they are run from only has a single or limited number of physical network connections.  This immediately limits the bandwidth available per machine.  Additionally, computers are becoming faster with increased processor speeds, more memory, etc… and consequently requiring more network bandwidth.  A single 1GB connection to a VM host device is now a networking bottleneck.

Bonded ports can’t compete and are expensive: One method to avoid the 1GB bottleneck is by bonding several 1GB connections together.  (Example: Bond 4 ports together creating a 4GB connection).  While this is a faster connection then 1GB, it’s still considerably slower than 10GB, and the price of the cables and SFP’s for multiple connections now exceeds the price of a single 10GB capable cable with SFP’s or the appropriate DAC cable.

40GB & 100GB have driven down the price of 10GB: Initially, the price tag on 10GB scared a lot of people away.  However with the release of 40GB and 100GB, the price of 10GB has decreased significantly making the technology extremely affordable and in many cases it is the “Best Bang for the Buck”.

10GB Top Of Rack (TOR) Switches Improve Performance: The best way to ensure optimal network performance with today’s datacenter racks filled with storage and virtual devices is to incorporate Top of Rack (TOR) switches.   The best TOR switches have Layer2/Layer capability and are line rate.  Meaning, in a datacenter design it will take less hops to reach the destination and the TOR switches are so fast that even under a maximum workload, there is absolutely zero oversubscription.  The result is better performance and faster data transfers.

In conclusion, with today’s virtualization and improved technology, the question is not “Why” should I consider 10GB but instead “When” will I incorporate 10GB.  From a price vs. performance comparison, 10GB is the best value for your money.

Why should the CFO be brought in from the start? First, cloud computing provides benefits such as the elimination or reduction of capital expenditures, since cloud is a self-service, pay-as-you-go pricing model. In many cases, moving to the cloud can turn a line item from a capital expenditure and cost to a more predictable operating cost. Cloud computing can also offer the opportunity to shift IT resources from maintenance to more strategic projects that improve the business and bottom line. Cloud computing also means speed and flexibility in the marketplace. Businesses can easily deploy new business solutions in a matter of hours with cloud computing versus the weeks and months that can come from purchasing, testing and integrating new software or hardware on-site.

Mr. Powledge closes with the realization that technology is now a driving force in all aspects of the corporate environment. The CFOs involvement in cloud computing decisions can better ensure controls, reporting and requirements.

To virtualize tier 1 applications the project many times touches a number of people, processes and technologies, and to make matters more complicated, best practices for virtualizing tier 1 applications are not easy to find since each virtualization is so unique. Here are some steps from Mr. Olavsrud’s article to maximize successful virtualization of mission-critical, tier 1, applications.

• Talk with your virtual machine hypervisor vendor to understand considerations specific to the platform.
• Talk with your system integrator or consultants to discuss architecture needs.
• Determine which components of your current infrastructure can support the new requirements of virtualization.
• Realign policies and processes to match up with a virtualized environment
• Determine a backup strategy and how to schedule and manage multiple concurrent backups jobs per server.
• Review your management methodology to account for both physical and virtual components in a single view.

• The advantage of IT is starting to come from better customer experience and data analytics. Start this year by giving executives practical guidance on how to help employees make better decisions. Go beyond ‘requirements’ documents and use ‘anthropological’ techniques to develop data and tools that help knowledge workers make better decisions.
• With more companies moving to cloud computing for the ‘factory’ side of IT, be on the forefront of this movement. Start educating business about key features of private cloud and public cloud environments.
• Consumerization and software-as-a-service (SaaS) continue to shift pieces of IT to the business unit. Don’t simply try to lock-down a business unit moving in this direction, but engage and discuss the risks and benefits of the project and be open to the business unit leading it.
• Mr. Shah reports that 54% of large organizations will offer some sort of end-to-end IT services by 2012. Use end-to-end service packages to show business units the full cost and value of the technology and IT needed for business activities.

1. Companies need to not only determine which applications are best for public and private clouds but also which are best or suited for a hybrid cloud situation.
2. There are many cloud computing infrastructures available right now and no universal standards for workloads in the cloud, so a portability layer is key to create the interoperability.
3. A critical piece of hybrid cloud scenario is a management platform that can be used to monitor and manage the environment with an eye towards resource provisioning, performance and scalability.
4. Hybrid cloud projects and deployments span across skills gained from virtualization, applications, servers and back up, so your team needs to be educated and brought up to speed with their skill set.

Why do “zombie” servers and switches exist? Some servers and switches are used for specific applications but overtime those applications may not be needed but the server still exists and no tieback exists back to the equipment for proper decommission. Another common cause is simply the server or switch was never recorded, therefore, it is left alone since no one may know why it was provisioned.

How can an enterprise identify and decommission “zombie” servers and switches? As with many IT management concerns good documentation is needed. Key to the documentation is regular updates and reviews including ownership information. A data center infrastructure management tool can also be effective as it provides a common real-time monitoring and management platform. Finally, regular analysis of power utilization, CPU cycles and network traffic can identify “zombie” servers.

At first glance, Mr. Finch, recognizes that the answer may seem to be “no”, but he points out that allowing employees to use their own personal computers may allow companies to save money and increase productivity. Here are his recommendations to protect the value of a company’s software investments:

1. Set clear usage rules – define usage rules in layman’s terms that employees can quickly understand and reference. Mr. Finch states, think “handful of rules” versus “20-point list”.
2. Determine subscription availability – it is important to recognize that employees may only need access to certain software temporarily. This step helps manage access and cost.
3. Track all employee software – this is especially important as an employee leaves the company so company-software can be uninstalled if appropriate.

As with any policy driven by the growth of the consumerization of IT, companies need to take a step back and determine if each new step is necessary and effective for their situation.

What else can we expect from PaaS? Even with PaaS, IT developers will still face the issue of whether they want ease of use and automation or breadth of control. Typically, more control results in a platform that is not easy to use and vice versa ease-of-use and automation create an environment that IT has less control. As developers continue to tackle this question, another PaaS development analysts predict is that PaaS providers will support more development environments and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms as enterprises look to cloud computing for existing applications not just for new applications.