With all the hype around Cloud, you’d think it’d be easier to get to this paradise right? Yet, Cloud is a bit like Las Vegas: lots of hype & lure, and depending on whose game you play, it’s a bit of a gamble . Plus there’s always some crazy guy armed with tons of cash building some new Cloud Hotel just across town–so do you check in now or later? Until recently, a “journey to the Cloud” involved a faceless interaction armed with a credit card via some Cloud Provider’s website to get a few servers or some storage cranked up. Truly amazing when you think about it. No datacenter tour, no consultative design session, no security review, just a lone human, website and credit card in the dim glare of the Internet. But datacenters really haven’t been reduced to a shopping cart just yet. Except in the case of the clinically insane, CIO’s were merely sticking their toes out across the demark between them and Cloud and taking it for a test drive with non-mission critical workloads. You know, that“dirty stuff” that “belongs out there anyway”–-the corporate website, ftp, email, etc. That part was pretty easy, especially when these services are built from scratch or easily republished or redirected up to the Cloud. But what about the many resources that don’t fall into that category (90% of your infrastructure)? How do you move THAT to the Cloud? How does a CIO leverage the Cloud’s impressive BCDR capabilities for next generation data protection & failover even when your primary datacenter will remain in-house? Well, Dr. Cloud has the solution RX for you. It’s called take a NetApp Snap Mirror and call me in the morning. But first, let’s take a look at the state of your current infrastructure a bit closer.
#1 – Virtualization. It’s not Cloud, but it’s a start.
Now a lot of you virtualization mavens out there love to smirk that you’re already in a cloud because you’ve virtualized with VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V. Alas, the hype is foggy around what Cloud is or isn’t. As such, most of us technical folks cross our arms and declare that Cloud is a figment of all our imaginations until someone proves otherwise. So real quick, here it is… virtualization is but the first step in anyone’s journey to the Cloud even if it’s to a private cloud.
A private Cloud is defined as an infrastructure which runs as a service to its internal users with all the management, automation, metrics, billing, and everything else that a public Cloud would have. You don’t have that today. Virtualize first.Preparation is key to any future success in the Cloud.
#2 – Enter NetApp. Snap Mirror is a CIO’s best friend.
http://www.netapp.com/us/products/protection-software/snapmirror.aspx
WARNING! The content you are about to read may not be acceptable for all audiences. The following material has been rated as thrilling, super green, and cost reducing. In short, it assumes you have a NetApp.
If you don’t, you can read on…or skip to what’s behind door #3. Still with me? You’ve either already got a NetApp or you’re an intrepid adventurer and I’ll keep my eye on you 😉 Ok so once you’ve got all resources virtualized from step #1 and moved your data residing on CIFS shares to NetApp or on servers which are virtualized onto your NetApp then you’re ready to (drum roll please) contact dinCloud.
Here’s what happens next:
We have a technical discovery call
Review your infrastructure and storage system
Review licenses and other requirements
Schedule an onsite visit or assessment if desired/required
We setup a dedicated Virtual Private DataCenter (“vpDC”)
This is protected by a virtualized firewall
We can add virtual load balancers
We can add virtual wan optimizers (NOTE: particularly useful with NetApp Snap Mirror over long distances)
We connect your existing infrastructure to the vpDC via
P2P VPN
Private encrypted P2P circuit (any speed, any flavor, you provide or we do, we’re flexible).
We spin up a win2k8 server and replicate your AD to the vpDC
Everything we do is built around your AD. It leaves you in control.
We allocate storage for you on our NetApp in the public Cloud. You have choices.
Isolated volumes albeit atop our multi-tenant NetApp arrays
Dedicated virtualized storage controller (“vFiler”) atop our multi-tenant NetApp arrays
http://www.netapp.com/us/communities/tech-ontap/tot-secure-mobile-cloud-storage-1001.html
Dedicated NetApp single-tenant array
Snap Mirror your volumes to the Cloud for BCDR
Your volumes copy over (aka “equalization”).
Congrats! At this point you’ve achieved off-site BCDR.
Next we enable synchronization; live data can be mirrored offsite every 10 minutes.
We can further replicate your data to a 3rd site (98 datacenters to choose from worldwide).
Virtual appliances like Silver Peak can be used to accelerate the snap mirror over the WAN.
Migration – For Production, Test, Development, & more
Numerous use cases once your data is mirrored to the Cloud:
Spin it up as your new production site
Spin it up as a copy of your production site so you can perform test/development with it
We break the snap mirror
Mount the data stores
Bring up the virtual machines
Congrats! Your’re servers, apps and data are now living in the Cloud!
We spin up virtual desktops for you, virtualize appliances etc.
NOTE: this is built around your AD, thus it leaves you in control.
Failover
Your private Cloud or our public Cloud can be your primary datacenter.
We provide/build both clouds or you can use us for either.
Snap Mirror works in both directions, so even if you have migrated to the Cloud, we can Snap Mirror back to your existing datacenter in case you want to get out of the Cloud later or just have peace of mind knowing all your data still resides within your realm.
We can automate your failover using a variety of tools, depending on what’s best for your requirements:
VMware Site Recovery Manager (“SRM”)
InMage vContinuum
Zerto & others
All of the above tools allow site failover testing & validation
#3 – For you non-NetApp shops. There’s still hope.
OK. So you don’t have a NetApp, but you still want your cake and to eat it too. Here are a few options:
- We can migrate all of your data on whatever storage array you have now into our Cloud where you can experience the awe and wonder of NetApp to its fullest.
- We can put a managed NetApp onsite in your existing datacenter via our Private Cloud offering at $0 CAPEX and 20-55% savings over what you pay for storage today.
- We get a lot better pricing in this model than you have now
- It’s easier for you to leverage the Cloud
- We are licensed for the full range of NetApp tools. Odds are that you’re only using a fraction of that today due to cost or expertise.
- We can use the tools in 8C and others to replicate you at the virtual machine level irrespective of your current storage array vendor or capabilities
Conclusion
dinCloud has a wide range of flexible, secure, customizable options for you in the Cloud when it comes to data protection, BCDR, migration and other tasks which are chores made easy thanks to our engineering innovation. We’ve really just scratched the surface here. We can talk about email systems, databases, phone system in the Cloud, so many things that ultimately when virtualized can leverage the power of the Cloud in what we have dubbed “the next generation datacenter”– because that’s all Cloud is.
Contact us today, and let’s chat.
