Netherlands / M+ Group - Growing storage capacity under control with Storage Area Network Lower costs, accommodating considerable storage capacity growth and realizing the highest possible level of data availability were the most important reasons the M+ Group decided to implement a Storage Area Network (SAN). Moreover, purchasing a SAN made it possible to centralize storage capacity, thus limiting the number of servers. The M+ Group offers channel management solutions and services. "We specialize in creating good contacts between customers and their target groups at the individual (customer) level," explains director Mato Bozic. "Our channel management solutions and services enable customers to communicate completely independent of the channel used." We help customers choose the most effective channels for approaching the desired target group. We have our own software development department and can build tailor made (web-based) applications if the situation demands it. And we can handle all the concrete communication activities from beginning to end." From execution to fulfillment and analysis: M+ monitors and manages the whole process. Transparency and measurability are important focal points, both during and after the specific communication activities. The principle is to always be able to demonstrate the effectiveness per available channel, based on the customer’s budget. "The company works for some five hundred customers, including well-known firms such as Allianz, Durion, Stroeve Vermogens Beheer (Asset management), Interpay, Jaguar, Zwitserleven (Insurance), Nestle and Volvo." 'Time to market' One of the problems facing M+ was the fast-growing need for storage capacity: frequently as much as 70 per cent per year. This meant that more and more servers had to be purchased. At that time, the company was still using a traditional DAS (direct attached storage) approach, where each server had its own storage capacity. That caused numerous problems, for example the fact that the number of servers in which the company had to invest grew dramatically, but the available storage capacity was not only difficult to manage; it could not be optimally utilized, either. "We asked COMPAREX to cope up with a solution for this problem," Bozic relates. COMPAREX’ proposal involved implementing a Storage Area Network (SAN). Such a storage approach offers M+ many advantages. For example, centralizing the storage means that storage capacity can be allocated both quickly and simply, without having to continually purchase new servers. Should it be necessary to add new server systems, this can be done quite simply. In other words: the 'time to market', which is so important for a company like M+, can be considerably reduced. Price/performance ratio In addition, the available storage capacity can be deployed much more efficiently and a SAN offers high availability levels. Moreover, a SAN offers interesting possibilities for utilizing different types of storage. This means that the appropriate storage systems can be selected based on the sort of information system and the type of data to be stored. The consequence? An optimum price/performance ratio per application or per type of data being stored. The solution that COMPAREX has developed consists of an IBM FAStT600 Storage Area Network in which twelve disk systems are used, each with a capacity of 73 Gigabytes. The M+ servers are linked to the SAN via two Cisco iSCSI Storage Routers. These routers make it possible to utilize the quality and the possibilities of a SAN based on Fiber Channel, but at the much lower costs of an IP network. In addition, an Ultrium Tape Library has been installed that is constructed around an LTO tape drive. IBM Tivoli software has been purchased to make the backups. In addition, COMPAREX has also delivered M+ six IBM servers from the X-Series 335 and 345. Flexible and attractively priced This solution satisfies the requirements M+ specified for the new storage infrastructure. The company wanted a flexible storage solution, so that unused storage capacity can be allocated to servers or applications quickly and easily. The scalability of the solution delivered is also important to M+. It must be easy to expand the central storage, given the company’s rapidly growing demand for storage capacity. Availability also played an important role in M+’s decision to go ahead with COMPAREX’ solution. "Some customers have their entire projects databases on the SAN," Bozic explains. So we cannot afford to be down for even a day. Because the storage is set up using a redundant hardware configuration, the SAN’s availability level is extremely high. If a component fails, all the data is still available for all the servers linked to the SAN. "Costs also played an important role for us," Bozic goes on. "By using the Cisco SN5428-2 iSCSI Storage Routers in combination with the IBM FAStT600 storage systems based on Fiber Channel, M+ now can now use an FC-SAN at the cost of a solution based on IP." Summary COMPAREX Solution: Complete two-tier web server implementation Expandable combination of FC SAN with cost-effective iSCSI SAN Hardware Platform IBM xSeries 335 and 345, IBM FAStT600 storage via Cisco SN5428-2 iSCSI Storage Routers, using a fast 2Gb Fiber Channel SAN for the clustered database servers and cost-effective iSCSI SAN for the web servers with SAN boot. In addition, there is a backup server with Tivoli Storage manager -n an IBM Ultrium tape library. Delivered with rack-mounted console, console switch, Cisco firewall and VPN for remote management, remote power switches, numbered cabling and documentation. Operating System Microsoft Windows 2003 Server and Advanced Server Database Microsoft SQL Serer Microsoft IIS Number of users > 100 Implementation time two months Implementation partner IBM Cisco Tivoli Copyright 2007 COMPAREX. All Rights Reserved.