Background

A growing number of organizations are using solid-state storage solutions in the data center. As shown in Figure 1, 34% of respondents to a recent ESG survey are currently using solid-state storage technology in either servers or external storage systems, and another 35% are currently evaluating it or have plans to do so in the next 12 months.[1] While early adopters report that improved performance was their primary reason for deploying a solid-state storage solution, they’ve achieved a number of additional benefits, including improved power and cooling efficiency, increased environmental tolerance, enhanced longevity, and improved reliability.

The first wave of widespread solid-state storage adoption began about four years ago, when flash memory became available as a solid-state disk drive tier in enterprise-class disk arrays. More recently, a growing number of organizations have installed PCIe-attached flash storage in servers to create a low-latency pool of primary disk or an extended disk cache. As matter of fact, 21% of respondents to a recent ESG survey indicate that they are currently using flash storage solutions in servers, and 15% plan on doing so in the next 12 months.

Early adopters report that an increasing number of performance-critical applications are accelerated with solid-state storage, including OLTP database, ERP financial, OLAP business intelligence, supply chain management, and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Solid-state storage is also accelerating the performance of consolidated virtual server and virtual desktop infrastructures.

Virident FlashMAX

FlashMAX is a small form factor PCIe drive that delivers high-speed, flash-based storage in capacities ranging from 300 GB to 1.4 TB. FlashMAX is designed to bridge the ever-growing performance gap between server CPU cores and traditional storage solutions. Typical performance issues common to real-world workloads are eliminated as FlashMAX delivers extremely high levels of predictably fast and sustained performance for mixed-application workloads.

Virident uses unique software and hardware to leverage the benefits of flash technology inside the FlashMAX SCM drive. The SCM architecture provides storage-like capacity and resilience while delivering memory-like performance in a small, universal form factor. The software layer, called vFAS (Virident Flash management with Adaptive Scheduling), serves as a gatekeeper, granting access to the flash media as efficiently as possible at all times. Without the need for slower, legacy storage protocols or interconnects, major improvements in application performance occur. These improvements occur due to vFAS’s virtualization of the primary flash media, which is accessible to applications via a standard block device interface. vFAS also intelligently and efficiently manages the asymmetric read/write/erase latencies of flash media to deliver consistent, predictable performance to the applications.

vFAS maximizes flash lifetime with global wear-leveling techniques. When necessary, data is relocated to less-used parts of the flash media to prevent hot-spots and overuse. Concerns regarding reliability and data availability are put to rest by the support of built-in flash-aware RAID. Data is spread across a RAID group that spans multiple flash chips and is protected by a RAID-5-like scheme, which prevents disruption from media failures while maintaining application data access and operational continuity. The RAID implementation is flash-aware and is tied tightly into the garbage collection and wear-leveling mechanisms.

FlashMAX provides a high level of consistency across all application workloads, whether the drive is brand new or fully utilized. The challenges associated with many first-generation PCIe flash adapters have been addressed with the multi-dimensional performance capabilities of FlashMAX, which offers:

• High throughput for small, medium, and large IO block sizes.
• Similar levels of performance for random and sequential access patterns.
• High levels of performance for reads, writes, and a mix of reads and writes.
• Sustained consistent performance over time.
• Extreme performance scalability with multiple FlashMAX adapters in a single server.
• Exceptionally low latencies and fast response times for real-world application workloads.

ESG Lab Validation

ESG Lab performed hands-on evaluation and testing of the FlashMAX at Virident corporate headquarters in Milpitas, California. Testing was designed to demonstrate the multi-dimensional performance capabilities using the industry-standard FIO utility.[2]

First Dimension: Small, Medium, and Large Block Sizes

Performance-sensitive applications that benefit from solid-state storage often have high throughput requirements (e.g., an HPC application processing a large machine-generated data set with 512 KB IOs). Others require high performance for relatively small IO requests (e.g., an OLTP database application with 4 KB IOs or a financial application writing logs with 1 KB block size). A third class of applications requires high performance for a mix of block sizes, with large IOs being used for data requests and small IOs used for metadata requests. The FlashMAX optimizes performance for each of these workloads, delivering predictably fast performance for a mix of IO block sizes.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab used the FIO utility to test the sequential read throughput capabilities of a single FlashMAX adapter as it processed IO requests with block sizes ranging from 512 bytes to 512 kilobytes. The results are shown in Figure 3.

What the Numbers Mean

• Much like the horsepower rating of a car, the aggregate throughput of a storage solution is a good indicator of the underlying power of that storage solution’s engine.
• Storage throughput is a measure of the bandwidth available to the system. Throughput can be measured on a stream or aggregate basis. A stream is represented by one application or user communicating through one IO interface to one device. Aggregate throughput is a measure of how much data the storage solution can move, as a whole, for all applications and users.
• Aggregate FlashMAX throughput scaled in a near-linear fashion for the smaller block sizes, shown toward the left side of Figure 3.
• Sequential read throughput reached a peak of 1,394 MB/sec at a 4 KB block size.
• A peak aggregate throughput of 1.394 GB/sec (1,394 MB/sec) is an excellent result for a single PCI flash drive.
• Performance remained predictably high as IO block sizes increased from 512 bytes up to 512 KB, shown toward the right side of Figure 3.

Second Dimension: Sequential and Random Access Patterns

HPC applications can have a variety of workload access patterns including random, sequential, and a mix of random and sequential access. Regardless of the IO access pattern, one key advantage of PCIe flash storage solutions is the ability to perform thousands of times more IOs per second (IOPS) than traditional spinning disk drives or ten times more IOPS than drive form-factor (SATA or SAS) SSDs.

While early adopters of flash storage solutions in the HPC market were initially focused on throughput-intensive sequential workloads, broader adoption in the wider (more horizontal) database, server virtualization, and desktop virtualization markets has begun to take off. Multi-user database and virtualization applications tend to have more random IO access patterns. First-generation flash solutions tended to have different performance characteristics for random and sequential access patterns. FlashMAX SCM provides similar levels of high performance for random and sequential workloads.

ESG Lab Testing

As shown in Figure 4, ESG Lab ran both random and sequential 8 KB reads at four different queue depth sizes to show not only how the access patterns perform, but also how they scale.

What the Numbers Mean

• Online database applications, including those that rely on the latest version of Microsoft SQL Server, are typically composed of a mix of random and sequential IO access patterns, with a block size of 8 KB as tested during this phase of the ESG Lab validation.
• Extremely fast sub-millisecond response times of 38 and 64 microseconds were recorded for 4 KB random write and read workloads respectively.
• The extremely fast response times recorded during ESG Lab testing are significantly faster than a drive form factor SSD. SSDs are slower due to the additional overhead of an IO protocol (e.g., SAS) vs. the low latency of a PCIe bus and the vFAS software advantage with the FlashMAX.
• The extremely fast response times recorded during ESG Lab testing are 25 to 200 times faster than a traditional disk drive.
• The total number of IOPS processed at a single queue depth was slightly higher for the sequential access pattern (14,286 IOPS) compared with the random access pattern (13,716 IOPS).
• At a queue depth size of 16, the random access slightly outperformed the sequential access.
• As queue depth continued to increase, performance eventually leveled out at a little more than 170,000 IOPS for random 8 KB reads and 165,000 IOPS for sequential 8 KB reads. It would take more than 1,000 power-hungry disk drives to deliver 170,000 random 8 KB IOPS.

Third Dimension: Sustained Performance over Time

Solid-state storage solutions have historically had problems maintaining performance over time. Because space is needed to service incoming write requests, a “garbage collection” process needs to run in the background. The goal of the garbage collection process is to free-up necessary space by consolidating written data that was fragmented due to the erase-before-write nature of flash media. Because this process happens along with all of the other user requests, enterprise application performance can be greatly affected. This can be seen by a severe drop in throughput and large response-time spikes. The performance drop is even more severe when flash devices are filled to capacity. The phenomenon is often referred to as a “write cliff,” which aptly describes how write performance seems to fall off a cliff over time. FlashMAX SCM was designed with a goal of providing sustained performance over time and avoiding the write cliff problem.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab tested the ability of a FlashMAX to sustain performance over time. An online database workload was emulated using a mixed 8 KB random workload with a mix of 70% reads and 30% writes. The database was sized to utilize the full capacity of the drive. The duration of the test was set for more than three hours (one hour warm-up followed by two hours of recorded runtime) to allow ample time for the flash device to reach full capacity and potentially be affected by the garbage collection process. The results are shown in Figure 5.

Performance varied minimally over the entire test, and the sustainability is clear. The FlashMAX was able to deliver consistent performance of just under 100,000 IOPS throughout the full duration of the test.

The Fourth Dimension: Scaling Performance with Additional FlashMAX

Scalability, put very simply, is the ability to elegantly handle more work or to physically grow to accommodate that additional work. In this case, scalability applies specifically to the near-linear performance increase that can be achieved with more than one FlashMAX drive installed in a single server. Illustrating this concept, Figure 6 shows how performance and capacity increase in a near-linear fashion with each additional FlashMAX drive that is installed in a server.

ESG Lab Testing

Eight FlashMAX SCM drives were installed in a powerful NEC GX server with fourteen PCI slots during this phase of testing. The Lab used the FIO utility to test 4 KB random read and write workloads. Results are shown in Figure 7.

What the Numbers Mean

• Performance scaled in a near-linear fashion for random read and write workloads as up to eight FlashMAX drives were installed in a single server.
• Performance peaked at an extremely high level of 2.2 million IOPS and 10.6 GB/sec of throughput on a single server.

Fifth Dimension: Real-World, Mixed-Application Workloads

Having looked at the throughput, IOPS, and response-time ratings of the turbo-charged FlashMAX engine, here’s where ESG Lab found “the rubber meets the road” when examining FlashMAX performance with real-world application workloads.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab used the FIO utility to measure the performance of a single FlashMAX card for three application workloads:

• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): Designed to emulate a virtual desktop environment composed of heavy knowledge-worker users sharing a common gold image (a.k.a., a linked clone). This workload is composed of 80% 16 KB random writes and 20% 16 KB random reads.
• Online Transaction Processing (OLTP): Order entry and reservation systems are two examples of OLTP applications. Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server are two examples of database applications used to create such OLTP applications. OLTP applications are characterized by a number of users accessing a shared system in parallel. This workload was composed of mostly random reads (70%) with relatively fewer writes (30%).
• Decision Support System (DSS): This workload, also referred to as data mining, emulates a database application that is doing a large-scale random query with a block size of 4 KB. An end-of-month analysis of the effect of a coupon-redemption program on same-store sales is an example of a decision support application.

In order to test the worst-case scenario, the drive was filled to capacity in all three application workload scenarios. Figure 8 shows the throughput scalability of these applications as queue depth increased.

What the Numbers Mean

• Having one outstanding request at a time, the VDI workload was able to achieve 162 MB/sec throughput, and it eventually scaled up to more than 400 MB/sec, with as little as 16 outstanding requests.
• The OLTP simulation reached a maximum of 794 MB/sec throughput at a high queue depth of 256.
• Showing the largest scaling factor, the DSS workload scaled from 117 to 1,352 MB/sec as queue depth increased.
• The performance of a single FlashMAX SCM drive that was recorded during simulated VDI workload testing can be used to support more than 1,000 heavy desktop users.[3]
• A traditional disk array with more than 1,000 disk drives would be needed to deliver the performance recorded during the OLTP testing with a single FlashMAX drive.

ESG Lab Validation Highlights

• Predictable performance scalability with a variety of IO block sizes that peaked at 1.39 GB/sec from a single FlashMAX drive (4 KB sequential reads).
• Predictably fast performance for reads, writes, and a mix of reads and writes for workloads simulating real-world OLTP, VDI, and DSS applications.
• Nearly identical levels of high performance for sequential and random read workloads.
• Sustained performance of 96,825 IOPS over two hours for an 8 KB OLTP workload and drive filled to capacity.
• Up to 345,046 IOPS from a single FlashMAX drive for a 4 KB random read workload.
• Extremely fast sub-millisecond response times (38 and 64 microseconds for 4 KB random write and read workloads, respectively).
• Near-linear performance scalability as up to eight FlashMAX cards delivered up to 2.2 million IOPS and 10.6 GB/sec of throughput on a single server.

Issues to Consider

• The high cost of solid-state capacity compared with traditional hard drive capacity has focused early adoption mainly among businesses whose revenue depends strictly on application performance (e.g., trading applications within the financial industry). As a matter of fact, ESG research indicates that the high cost of solid-state capacity is the number-one objection by organizations that have not yet deployed a flash-based storage solution. As the cost of flash capacity decreases over the next three to five years and performance needs increase, ESG expects that the adoption of PCIe flash drives will grow in the broader horizontal enterprise IT market. This is especially true within server virtualization and desktop virtualization environments with high performance needs. In this case, PCIe flash drives have an economic advantage ($/IOP) compared with traditional hard drives.
• Early adopters considering using a flash-based PCI drive in a server to solve a performance problem with a business-critical, high-performance application should consider the extra costs of installing FlashMAX drives in multiple clustered servers for high availability and failover. Solid-state disk drives installed at the other end of the wire (in a SAN-attached storage array) are a viable alternative for more cost-effective sharing and failover. However, they are typically much slower than a PCI flash drive. A FlashMAX drive that’s installed inside of a SAN-attached disk array could be used to create a simply elegant, highly available alternative that cost-effectively accelerates the performance of tier-0 applications and consolidated virtual server environments.
• ESG Lab ran performance scalability tests on a high-end server that could support multiple FlashMAX drives in a single server. The server being tested needed to have enough PCIe slots to support eight FlashMAX drives, and enough processing power to support the necessary requests to drive each FlashMAX to its limit. To achieve the performance scalability results documented in this report, a high-end server with similar specifications is recommended.[4]

The Bigger Truth

The growing gap between the speed of servers and traditional disk-based storage solutions is causing a number of problems in the data center. Though flash memory solutions have filled this void by serving as an answer for some of the most performance-critical application workloads in recent years, issues still exist. First-generation flash-based storage solutions often have challenges maintaining predictably high levels of performance, over time, for real-world applications with mixed-IO patterns. Sustainable performance over the life of a drive is a particularly vexing challenge due to the impact of background garbage collection processes.

ESG Lab has confirmed that Virident FlashMAX is a next-generation PCIe flash drive that leverages intelligent algorithms to provide high levels of sustained, multi-dimensional performance. Extremely low latencies and high levels of performance were recorded with a variety of workloads. ESG Lab was most impressed with the paucity of “saw-tooth” and “drop-off” performance patterns associated with first-generation PCI flash drives. Scalability testing with up to eight FlashMAX drives delivered extremely high levels of near-linear performance scalability that sustained more than 10 GB/sec of throughput and two million IOPS with a single server.

With a proven ability to deliver predictably fast real-world application performance over the life of the drive, FlashMAX is well suited for the growing number of performance-sensitive OLTP, OLAP, DSS, HPC, and VDI workloads that are migrating from traditional disk drives to high-speed flash memory. ESG Lab believes that Virident, with the FlashMAX family of storage-class memory solutions, has unlocked the potential for affordable, large-scale deployment of flash technology in the modern data center.

Appendix

[2] http://freecode.com/projects/fio

[3] Using a conservatively high estimate of 20 IOPS per user

[4] The specifications for the server used during ESG Lab testing are listed in the Appendix.

The Stages of Server Virtualization

Many organizations are currently reaping benefits of server virtualization that include lower IT capital and operating costs and greater IT efficiency. Organizations with server virtualization experience are moving beyond these benefits to improve application provisioning, maintenance, availability, and backup/recovery processes. Server virtualization’s benefits appear to be closely correlated to users’ experience and confidence in the technology.

Over time, organizations tend to move through three distinct stages as they deploy server virtualization technology, beginning by virtualizing IT-owned infrastructure applications and utilities like file and print services. The key objectives during this first wave of virtualization are consolidation, manageability, and cost reduction. As organizations gain confidence in virtualization technology, more intensive applications like Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint are consolidated during the second wave of adoption. In this stage, the agility and availability of IT services are often enhanced as IT managers take advantage of virtualization to migrate applications from physical servers to the increased fault tolerance provided within the virtualization layer. As organizations continue on their virtualization journey, ensuring the performance and scalability of tier-1 applications like SAP is a key objective. ESG asked IT professionals what strategies they have implemented to address virtual server performance concerns. As seen in Figure 1, server architecture plays a huge role, with increased memory density and additional CPU capacity being key considerations.

Server Virtualization is a Top IT Priority

Server virtualization is becoming ubiquitous as a strategic initiative for IT organizations around the world. Of the 1,602 respondents to a recent ESG research survey, nearly three-quarters (74%) said their organization currently uses server virtualization.[1] In addition, as part of its annual IT spending intentions research, ESG surveyed senior IT professionals concerning their organizations’ most important IT priorities, and increasing the use of server virtualization was the number one response. Server virtualization is clearly their most important priority for the coming year and beyond, making it the third year in a row that it has ranked at the top of the priority list.^[2] Businesses recognize the value that server virtualization delivers and will continue to make investments in the technology in order to drive further efficiencies in their IT environments.

ESG’s data has confirmed that a massive wave of server virtualization expansion is well underway. For example, while 73% of organizations have virtualized 40% or less of their total population of servers today, 58% expect to virtualize more than 40% of all of their servers 24 months from now. The data also indicates that more of these new virtual servers will be run in production environments—on average, the percentage of VMs run in production will increase from 39% today to 58% within two years.[3]

Given the fact that 59% of organizations surveyed by ESG have not yet virtualized tier-1 applications and that the greatest benefits to be gained with virtualization come with the virtualization of these data-intensive applications and workloads, ESG expects to see an increasing number of organizations tackling tier-1 virtualization.

Overcoming Tier-1 Virtualization Concerns

While server virtualization adoption continues to gain momentum, IT organizations still have numerous hurdles to overcome in order to move closer to a 100% virtualized data center. ESG’s data indicates that many organizations struggle with concerns over performance, technology complexity, integration, security, organizational confusion, and a basic lack of knowledge and skills that they believe will be vitally important when virtualizing tier-1 application environments.

When it comes to virtualizing multi-user tier-1 applications essential to the business, in addition to the general concerns already cited, organizations have additional worries:

• Will the virtualization layer add significant performance overhead?
• Can the virtualized infrastructure scale to continue to meet their needs?
• Can performance SLAs for virtualized tier-1 applications be met with confidence?

Despite the challenges, experienced organizations with more mature virtualization deployments are rapidly moving beyond the initial benefits of consolidation, finding that more extensive use of virtualization can help improve application backup/recovery, bolster application availability, and automate IT processes. They have come to realize that the real metrics that matter in a virtual environment are those focused on availability and performance, and measure the success of their virtualization efforts not only by their ability to reduce costs and increase efficiency, but also by their ability to meet application performance requirements.

Of these more mature organizations surveyed by ESG, 52% cited application uptime and 48% indicated performance among the metrics used to gauge the success of their virtualization deployments, as can be seen in Figure 2.

Many of these early adopter organizations have now virtualized their entire infrastructures, including tier-1 applications like SAP. In other words, application performance is a top criterion for virtualization success that is being addressed by the early adopters that have fully embraced server virtualization.

The HP ProLiant DL 980, Powered by Intel Xeon Processors with VMware vSphere 5

New technologies and offerings from HP, Intel, and VMware seek to address these performance and scalability concerns. The HP ProLiant DL980 G7 is designed to reduce bottlenecks and improve throughput and performance as well as deliver enhanced reliability in an x86 environment.

Scaling up to 80 total cores with Intel Xeon E7 4800 and 7500 Series processors, up to 4 TB of  memory, 16 IO slots, and HP Integrated Lights-Out 3 (iLO 3) remote server management software, the DL980 G7 server is a platform designed for organizations looking for balanced scalability and self-healing resiliency for today’s enterprise compute environments.

VMware vSphere 5 is designed to take advantage of these massive scale-up servers and new processor technology, with support for up to 2048 vCPUs and 2 TB of RAM per host, and support for up to 32 vCPUs and 1 TB of RAM per virtual machine. In addition, VMware has introduced support for multi-core virtual CPUs which allows VMs to use advanced memory management features in server hardware as if it were on a physical machine.

Figure 3 shows how HP, Intel, and VMware offerings can be leveraged to provide a robust, massively scalable virtualized environment for the most critical tier-1 applications running in enterprises today.

A growing number of businesses are looking beyond the initial benefits of increased consolidation and manageability that can be achieved when virtualizing tier-1 application workloads. And yet, as previously referenced, 59% of organizations have not yet virtualized tier-1 applications. Performance concerns are among the reasons most cited as preventing companies from using virtualization more pervasively. The balance of this report summarizes the results of ESG Lab testing designed to evaluate the scalability and performance of a tier-1 SAP ERP application workload running on an Intel Xeon-powered HP ProLiant DL980 server fully virtualized with VMware vSphere 5.

ESG Lab Validation

ESG Lab performed hands-on evaluation and testing of virtualized tier-1 application workloads in VMware’s facilities in Palo Alto, California utilizing HP’s ProLiant DL980 server with VMware’s vSphere 5 running SAP ERP 6.0.  The workload used was designed to emulate a number of different user activities in a sales and distribution environment executing several different transactions.

Getting Started

Figure 4 illustrates the test bed used by ESG Lab. SAP ERP 6.0 was installed in a VMware vSphere 5 virtual machine running on an HP ProLiant DL980 server configured with eight Intel X7560 8-core CPUs and 512 GB of DDR3 system RAM. While the DL980 can support up to 2 TB of RAM today and 4 TB with 32 GB DIMM modules in the near future, 512 GB was more than sufficient for the tests described in this report. Storage services were supplied by an HP P4500 SAN over a 1Gbps iSCSI SAN.

Testing was executed in a repeating loop against an SAP installation where all components (application and database servers) were installed and running on one virtual machine. While the workload was running, different aspects of virtual machine hardware utilization were measured as well as application response time. The testing simulated a sell-from-stock business model and included the creation of a customer order with multiple line items, delivery of the order, shipment, and invoicing.

This workload is resource-intensive and is intended to gauge the expected performance of the tested server platform and configuration in a virtualized SAP environment.

ESG Lab Testing

Figure 5 shows the HP ProLiant DL980 as seen in the vSphere 5 console, with eight 8-way Intel Xeon processors installed and hyperthreading enabled.

Testing was performed against a single virtual machine with 4, 8, 16, and 32 vCPUs. Each virtual machine had RAM allocated in proportion to the number of vCPUs assigned, from 16 GB for the 4 vCPU virtual machine to 128 GB for the 32 vCPU machine, as seen in Figure 6. It’s important to note that vSphere 5 allows administrators to configure the number of virtual sockets, enabling optimized VM memory management. It is also important to note that unlike physical machines, virtual machines can easily have CPU and RAM resources added or subtracted at any time, making the VM easier to dynamically scale to meet increasing or decreasing performance demands.

ESG Lab ran a CPU-intensive portion of the test workload and captured the screenshot shown in Figure 7.

This workload was run in a loop for several minutes. The virtual machine distributed the load quite evenly across all 32 vCPUs. It’s important to keep in mind that while most workloads don’t require the maximum VM configuration of 32 vCPUs and 1 TB of RAM, vSphere 5 was able to manage large memory and vCPU allocations in a VM quite well, and it’s reasonable to expect similar results for configurations with larger RAM configurations.

Performance and Scalability

ESG lab next ran the full workload simulation on the SAP ERP 6.0 server, starting with four vCPUs and scaling up to 32 vCPUs, capturing multiple key metrics such as the number of users, IOPS, vCPU utilization, and application response time as the workload was increased.

ESG Lab Testing

The number of users simulated, IOPS driven, and response time as well as the average CPU utilization while the workload was running were monitored as a scalable number of users were emulated on a single physical server virtualized with VMware vSphere 5. The results are summarized in Figure 8 and Table 1.

Also shown in Table 1 are results captured using a 32-core physical machine ESG Lab tested in 2009[4] using the same workload.

What the Numbers Mean

• A real-world OLTP ERP workload was emulated using SAP application and database servers running in one virtual machine.
• A single virtual machine scaled from 4 to 32 vCPUs as simultaneous SAP users were increased from 600 to 3,000, proving that SAP systems running on VMware can now easily scale as an environment grows to meet the needs of the largest SAP systems.
• Average CPU utilization was remarkably consistent through the entire range of tests, illustrating vSphere 5’s ability to balance the load evenly across multiple cores and sockets as the size of the VM and the workload were increased.
• Dialog response time, representing the average application response time to users for all transaction types, ranged from .1 seconds to 1.1 seconds during the test for the virtual machines.
• ESG Lab compared these results with results obtained with a 32-core physical server tested using the same SAP configuration and transaction types and found that the vSphere virtualized HP ProLiant DL980, while driving approximately two-thirds of the users and IOPS of the tuned physical server, did so with half the dialog response time, which represents the delay users experience waiting for a transaction to complete.
• Considering that the SAP workload tested utilized only half of the CPU and one quarter of the available RAM installed in the DL980 tested, it is not unreasonable to expect that a single DL980 could easily support a second virtualized SAP workload at a similarly high utilization level and/or multiple less intensive workloads driven by other applications.

Virtual CPU utilization and dialog response time were monitored to confirm that vSphere 5 was distributing the load smoothly across all 32 vCPUs during testing and that transactions were being satisfied within accepted response time guidelines. Virtual CPU utilization was evenly distributed while transaction response time was low during the 4 vCPU test and remained low during the 8, 16, and 32 vCPU tests. The efficiency of VMware vSphere 5 running on a powerful HP ProLiant DL980 attached to a 1 GB iSCSI disk array with fast 15K RPM drives provided more than enough horsepower to support a very large and busy SAP server.

ESG Lab Validation Highlights

• An HP ProLiant DL980 physical server, running a tier-1 SAP ERP 6.0 implementation deployed within one VMware vSphere 5 virtual machine, scaled nearly linearly in performance as vCPUs and memory were increased—up to a total of 32 vCPUs in a single virtual machine.
• CPU utilization and response times remained low throughout testing, indicating significant headroom to support larger workloads with increased storage bandwidth and system tuning.
• A sustained CPU-intensive workload was evenly distributed across all 32 vCPUs in the virtual machine.

Issues to Consider

• While the scalability of both vSphere 5 and the ProLiant DL980 server are extensive (up to 1 TB per VM, 2 TB per host server), the tests ESG is validating were done without taking full advantage of the capabilities of this combination solution, using only 512 GB of memory in the server. ESG believes the performance of VMs with maximum allocations of memory running on the platform will be consistent with the results validated in this report.
• Capacity planning and performance analysis of SAP deployments is recommended to not only determine if your organization’s workload is suitable for virtualization, but also to plan the processor, memory, storage, and network resources that need to be configured within each virtual machine.
• SAP application and database server roles are both good candidates for virtualization. For database implementations at the very high end (ie:32 vCPUs in a single virtual machine),users would be well-advised to consider deploying application servers on virtual machines separate from resource-intensive database instances.
• The test results presented in this report are based on a simulated workload deployed against an SAP ERP 6.0 installation in a controlled environment. Due to the many variables in each production data center environment, capacity planning and testing in your own environment is highly recommended. Sizing SAP deployments is always under the purview of the hardware partner; work with your HP team for sizing, performance, and capacity planning.
• Default server BIOS, operating system, SAP, and SQL Server settings were used during ESG Lab testing. As expected after any performance test of this magnitude, analysis of the results indicates that tuning would probably yield higher absolute results. Given that the goal of this test was not to generate a big number, ESG Lab is confident that the results presented in this report demonstrate the performance and scalability of tier-1 application workloads running in consolidated VMware vSphere 5 environments.

The Bigger Truth

Server virtualization is being deployed by a large and growing number of organizations with the ambitious, parallel goals of lowered costs, improved resource utilization, non-disruptive upgrades, and increased availability. Each of these benefits is fundamentally enabled by decoupling servers, applications, and data from specific physical assets—bringing IT organizations one step closer to the ideal of a completely virtualized IT infrastructure. A recent ESG survey indicated that increasing the use of server virtualization was users’ number one IT priority over the last two years and will continue to be the top priority for the next 12-18 months. But while server virtualization continues to gain momentum, some IT organizations are still reluctant to fully embrace virtualization.

It’s a common strategy for organizations to focus server virtualization efforts on consolidation until they build the confidence and expertise to consider the next tier of applications; ESG found that 59% have yet to employ virtualization where it will provide the most benefit: their data-intensive tier-1 applications. For IT organizations supporting large numbers of users, this hesitance stems from the perception that it adds performance overhead and unpredictable scalability and availability challenges to the tier-1 applications relied upon by the majority of their users.

Multiple vendors currently offer server virtualization solutions and the field continues to expand. Choosing a solution set to best fit a specific environment, business need, or budget can be a significant challenge. HP, Intel, and VMware answer this challenge with massively scalable server platforms built on powerful, virtualization-optimized processors and robust, scalable, easy-to-use virtualization software which integrates seamlessly with HP server management software such as HP Insight Control for ProLiant.

The HP ProLiant DL980 platform is a dense, scale-up industry-standard server powered by the latest Intel Xeon processor technology and  designed to support the largest and most challenging virtualized applications and workloads with the added goal of fast, easy deployments that users can customize to grow computing power in the data center on demand.

VMware vSphere 5 virtualizes servers with the goal of transforming traditional x86-based IT infrastructure into an automated, always-on computing environment. Customers have reduced IT infrastructure costs while streamlining management of IT environments and delivering improved service levels to the business. vSphere 5 builds on the robust tools and capabilities of VMware, including the capability of creating virtual machines with up to 32 virtual CPU cores and true NUMA functionality, while VMware High Availability and Fault Tolerance capabilities integrate tightly with HP to offer business continuity.

ESG Lab hands-on testing has confirmed that HP, Intel, and VMware technology can be used to meet the performance and scalability requirements of virtualized tier-1 workloads. Predictably low response times and near linear performance scalability were achieved during testing as a single server hosting a virtualized SAP ERP deployment within one vSphere 5 virtual machine supported up to 3,000 simulated SAP users. Extremely low application response times were observed in an un-tuned environment, implying significant headroom to support more users when the environment and application are tuned for performance. Considering the large amount of unused resource capacity in the DL980 under test, ESG Lab believes that a single DL980 could easily support a second virtualized SAP workload at a similarly high utilization level and/or multiple less intensive workloads driven by other applications.

Virtualizing SAP and other tier-1 applications’ workloads with the HP ProLiant DL980, powered by Intel Xeon processors in combination with vSphere 5, enables businesses to overcome scalability and performance concerns as they lower costs and increase the agility and availability of a consolidated IT infrastructure. With the ability to host multiple, large-scale virtual machines with very large memory footprints inside a single physical server, administrators can support a very large tier-1 application environment in a very small data center footprint.

It’s clear to ESG Lab that the complementary technologies offered by HP ProLiant DL980 servers, Intel Xeon processors, and VMware vSphere 5 virtualization software can be used to effectively support vital enterprise workloads like SAP, providing the reliability and performance customers require while simplifying operations, lowering costs, and providing tier-1 class availability—all in a virtualized x86 environment.

Appendix

[2] Source: ESG Research Report, 2011 IT Spending Intentions Survey, January 2011.

[3] Source: ESG Research Report, The Evolution of Server Virtualization, November 2010.

[4] Configuration details can be found in the Appendix.

[5] Source: ESG Research Report, The Evolution of Server Virtualization, November 2010.

We were extremely impressed by the simplicity and performance of a multi-site file share that was automatically protected in the cloud.  While you’re waiting for our report which will be published early next year, you might want to check out this amazing report from Nasuni:  http://www.nasuni.com/cloudreport.

The report documents the results of Nasuni testing with a goal of emulating the storage activity of real-world applications that rely on public cloud storage services.  Nasuni tested 16 public cloud service providers, but only six were found to be ready for prime time. Amazon S3 got the highest marks. Microsoft Azure scored well along with AT&T, Nirvanix, Peer1 hosting and Rackspace.  Testing is smartly focused on verifying one of the key benefits of cloud-based computing:  on-demand elasticity and scalability.    Testing is also focused on two of the biggest concerns with cloud computing: performance and stability.   Performance testing with a variety of block sizes and activity levels makes the results applicable to a wide variety of real-world applications and use cases.   Testing with millions of objects over time provides a good measure of ongoing availability and sustainable performance.

While the scalability and exhaustiveness of Nasuni’s ongoing testing efforts creates activity levels that are well beyond the current needs of most organizations,  ESG Lab believes that the findings provide a sound basis for evaluating the performance, scalability, and availability of real-world applications that rely on public cloud storage services.   Nasuni’s bold and refreshing decision to publish the results of tests is a huge win for forward-looking IT managers that are trying to quantify the benefits—and risk—of betting on a public cloud provider.

Brian

Fast forward to 2011 and who would have guessed that companies overwhelmed by email archives and ever-growing volumes of backup data could benefit from the extreme performance and scalability that’s being used at Pixar?  Scale-out NAS challenges are much more “everyday” than “lunatic fringe,” and HP has made it easy for organizations to harness the power of IBRIX scale-out NAS.

ESG Lab recently evaluated the performance of the HP X9320, a fully integrated scale-out NAS solution that leverages the power of IBRIX technology running on industry standard servers and storage from HP.  An excellent large file throughput rate of 2,257 MB/sec  was achieved with a single HP X9320 couplet and performance scaled in a near-linear fashion as couplets were added to a single file system. Small file performance was outstanding as well – a single X9320 couplet created 5.1 million 4 KB files in an hour.   Learn more in this ESG Lab report.

Background

File data growth has outstripped e-mail- and database-driven growth for some time now.  The reasons are many: richer file formats, ubiquitous photo and video, online communities, collaboration tools, 3-D modeling, and 4-D imaging to name a few. But exotic file types are only part of the challenge.  Organizations dealing with extensive and ever-growing volumes of disk-based backup and archive data struggle with similar problems; they need to accommodate growth efficiently, manage it simply, and access it quickly.

Simultaneously, economic conditions have led businesses to emphasize first CAPEX, and now OPEX, reductions more than ever.  File growth has resulted in higher costs in terms of additional storage, complex management, and data center floor space and energy.  As a result, the ability to scale out—that is, independently scale and tune bandwidth, processing, and storage capacity on the fly while managing a single, global namespace—is extremely popular for increasing efficiency and saving money.

Adoption of scale-out NAS solutions is driven by its ability to address multiple challenges. ESG survey respondents report selecting scale-out NAS to achieve faster storage provisioning, better scalability with easier management, improved performance of both IO and throughput, and higher data availability (see Figure 1).[1]

Introducing HP Storage X9320 IBRIX Network Storage Systems Scale-Out NAS

The X9320 Network Storage Solutions are an integrated appliance series consisting of industry-standard HP servers and storage with the IBRIX Fusion segmented file system. Three models are available: one built to optimize performance or capacity, one focused on low cost and high density, and one gateway front end for use with existing SANs.  X9320 couplets can be combined into a single file system with nearly linear capacity and performance scalability.

The X9320 is designed to enable extreme scaling—up to and beyond the currently supported maximum of 16 petabytes in a single namespace. As a result, large file systems can be accessed, managed, and protected from a single interface. Unlike other clustered file system solutions, the X9320 was designed for multi-tenant environments which often have a wide variety of workloads, including response-time sensitive, small random workloads (such as general purpose file sharing) and bandwidth-intensive, large sequential workloads (such as backup to disk, archiving and big data analytics). Features include:

• Non-disruptive growth. The X9320’s modular structure accommodates multi-petabyte growth without downtime. Built-in policy management and automated file migration capabilities let IT optimize for performance, capacity, or retention.
• Non-disruptive workload re-balancing. Workloads are spread across storage resources to avoid overworking individual drives, reduce hotspots, and enhance performance.
• Online migration between storage tiers. X9320 systems help reduce costs by enabling customers to move the most active data to the highest performance drives and less active data to more cost-efficient drives.
• Automated administration. Managing a single file system with an intuitive graphical interface and rich set of command line interfaces reduces administrative cost and complexity.
• Enterprise-class software features. The X9320 supports valuable enterprise-class storage software capabilities including continuous remote replication, snapshots, and automatic online migration between storage tiers.
• Predictable performance at scale. Fully distributed metadata versus a centralized lock manager file system enables predictable, near-linear performance across the file system namespace.

ESG Lab Validation

ESG Lab evaluated the results of two sets of X9320 performance tests that were run in an HP lab in Fort Collins Colorado.  The first tested large block sequential throughput and the second tested small file  creation performance.  Both used three HP StorageWorks X9320 IBRIX Network Storage System (X9320) couplets.

Background

The file system at the heart of an X9320 series scale-out NAS solution was designed to provide near linear performance scalability for large and small files, regardless of the size of the file system.  The segmented architecture of the file system provides scalable performance for large and small file workloads.  This powerful technology was designed by IBRIX which was acquired by HP in 2009.

The IBRIX file system distributes file data and metadata over multiple servers that work together in a fault tolerant, scalable cluster. Each server in the IBRIX cluster has a map to determine which segment holds a particular file. As a result, regardless of which node accepts the data request, the server can quickly identify the location and deliver the data.  This approach minimizes performance bottlenecks as metadata and file access traffic is distributed evenly over multiple segment servers.

Test Bed

Performance testing began with three X9320 couplets as shown in Figure 3. A “couplet” is a term HP uses to describe a pre-configured, fault tolerant pair of HP servers running the IBRIX file system software attached to two pre-configured HP P2000 disk arrays.  In this example, three couplets used 288 15K RPM disk drives to present a single 120 TB file system to 16 NFS v3 clients.  The clients were attached to an Ethernet LAN using two bonded 10GigE ports. The X9320 couplet was attached to the LAN using a pair of 10 GigE bonded connections.[2]

Performance Methodology

The industry standard IOzone utility was used for the large file sequential tests and the HP SNPT performance utility was used to generate small file workloads. The SNPT utility, which stands for “simple NAS performance toolkit,” was used as an alternative to industry-standard tools including Iometer, bonnie, dd, and countless other file system performance tools. SNPT was originally developed by HP to overcome the limitations of industry-standard file system benchmarking tools. SNPT supports multiple streams running over multiple clients writing over many files with a variety of directory structures. SNPT collects fine grain performance data, down to the millisecond level for each file operation if needed. It collects performance data captured at the OS or network levels as well.

ESG Lab audited the source code of the SNPT utility and verified that it uses standard file system calls to open, write, read, and close files. Scripts used to generate SNPT calls and logs created by the SNPT utility were audited by ESG Lab. Performance data collected independently at the NFS client level to verify the authenticity of performance results reported by SNPT was also examined.

X9320 Large File Throughput Scalability

The first set of tests was designed to measure the performance of X9320 couplets for throughput-intensive write and read workloads. Sequential transfers to large files were used during this phase of testing. The aggregate throughput of the system was recorded as 16 Linux clients accessed a single file system in parallel. Tests were run on a file system deployed over one, two, and three couplets. Each of the three couplets was configured with 96 disk drives each. The results are shown in Figure 4 and Table 1.

What the Numbers Mean

• A single X9320 couplet with two industry-standard HP servers delivered 1,179 MB/sec (1.2 GB/sec) of sustained aggregate throughput for large file writes and 2,257 MB/sec (2.3 GB/sec) for large file reads.
• Based on ESG Lab’s experience testing traditional and scale-out NAS solutions, 2.3 GB/sec of aggregate throughput is an excellent result for a single file system running on a pair of industry-standard servers.
• Performance scaled in a perfect linear fashion as the solution was expanded at a single couplet granularity.  Each additional couplet increased throughput in a near linear fashion up to a peak of 3.455 GB/sec for writes and 6.712 GB/sec with three couplets.

Interpreting Large File Throughput Scalability

Content delivery is a good example of an application that benefits from a storage solution with predictably scalable large file throughput.  Content delivery is used to define a broad category of systems which deliver digital video, image, and audio files over a delivery medium such as a broadcasting network, intranet, or the Internet. The delivery of large files over a content delivery medium requires a storage solution with lots of capacity and aggregate read throughput. To put the aggregate throughput results recorded by ESG Lab into perspective, the maximum aggregate read throughput that was recorded for the three-couplet X9320 system (6.555 GB/sec) was used to calculate the number of streams that could be delivered for a number of well known content types. The results are summarized in Figure 5 and Table 2.

What the Numbers Mean

• The aggregate read throughput of the storage repository used to deliver large file digital media is one of the key factors to consider when architecting and sizing a content delivery system.
• ESG Lab used the maximum aggregate read throughput of a three-node X9320 storage system and the bit rates of well known content types to estimate the maximum number of large files that can be streamed in parallel by the three-node X9320 tested by ESG Lab.
• For example, a bit stream rate of 128 Kbps for MP3 files was used to determine that a three-couplet X9320 has the bandwidth required to support up to 429,568 song downloads running in parallel (6.555 GB/sec divided by 128 Kbps).[3]

Write Throughput for Backup to Disk, Archive, and Big Data Analytic Ingest

The extremely high and scalable throughput of the X9320 is ideally suited for bandwidth intensive applications that write a lot of large files.  Backup to disk, e-mail archiving and the data ingest portion of a big data analytic workflow are good examples.    Using backup to disk as an example, the results that are summarized in Table 4 show how the scalable performance of the X9320 can be used to protect up to 1.58 TB of data in a single 8 hour shift.

What the Numbers Mean

• A single X9320 couplet delivered an excellent sustained aggregate write throughput of 1.15 GB/sec.
• Performance scales linearly up to 3.37 GB/sec of sustained write throughput for three couplets.
• Write throughput of 3.37 GB/sec is an extremely high rate, beyond what most commercial NAS system can deliver from a single file system, yet is often required to meet the demands of backup to disk, deep archives, and big data analytic ingest services.
• Using backup to disk as an example, a sustained throughput of 3.37 GB/sec can be used to write 96.8 TB of data during an eight hour backup window.
• Using a bandwidth limited archive operation as an example, a three couplet X9320 solution with a single name space can be used to archive up to 290.4 TB of data in 24 hours.

X9320 Small File Performance Scalability

General purpose business applications that store data on shared file systems typically create and access lots of small files.  As the number of users sharing a single file system increases, small file performance needs to scale to meet the demands of the business.

Big data, high performance, and rich media applications also often require good small file performance.  Applications that store large files often create small files to keep track of metadata (data about the files).  A website that stores uploaded photos on a file share is a good example: besides the large photo files, the application often creates small thumbnail images and may also use small files to store metadata (e.g., titles, tags).

The file system at the heart of an X9320 scale-out NAS solution is designed to perform well for large and small file workloads.

The test bed used to analyze small file performance is shown in Figure 6.  A single 120 TB file system residing on three X9320 couplets with 288 15K RPM drives was tested with 16 NFS clients.

The HP SNPT performance utility and a script running on each of the 16 NFS clients was used to create as many 4 KB files as possible over the course of an hour. A master script launched synchronized copies of the script on each of the clients and waited for them to finish. The total number of files created was recorded. The results are presented in Figure 7 and Table 4.

What the Numbers Mean

• HP claims that a single NFS stream can create hundreds of files per second and multiple streams can create more than 1,000 files per second on a single X9320 couplet. In this example, multiple NFS streams running in multiple directories on a single X9320 couplet wrote 4 KB files at a sustained rate of 1,495 per second, which is more than adequate for most applications.[4]
• ESG Lab added additional couplets to show that the X9320 scale-out NAS solution meets the small file performance requirements of ANY application. The number of files written tripled, going from one couplet with 5,131,623 files written to three couplets with 15,396,504 files written.
• For applications requiring even higher levels of small file performance, IBRIX clients can be used instead of NFS clients to create more than 10,000 files per second on a single X9320 couplet.

ESG Lab Validation Highlights

• ESG Lab confirmed that the segmented IBRIX  file system running on industry-standard HP hardware performs and scales extremely well when processing large and small files.
• Large file performance scaled in a nearly perfect linear fashion as X9320 series scale-out NAS couplets were added to a single file system.
• A single X9320 couplet processing large files achieved an aggregate throughput rate of 1,179 MB/sec for writes and 2,257 MB/sec for reads.
• A three-couplet X9320 system scaled to deliver 3.374 GB/sec of write throughput and 6.555 GB/sec of read throughput.
• A single X9320 couplet accessing multiple directories with the NFS protocol wrote small 4 KB files at a sustained rate of 1,495 files per second.
• A single X9320 couplet created more than 5.1 million 4 KB files over the course of an hour.

Issues to Consider

• All tests were run using the NFS protocol.  The IBRIX native client is available for customers looking to get even better performance.
• The performance results presented in this report are based on benchmarks deployed in a controlled lab environment. Due to the many variables within each production data center, capacity planning and testing in your own environment is needed to see exactly how the X9320 series scale-out NAS will perform with your applications.

The Bigger Truth

In case you haven’t heard, the ever-expanding volume of unstructured data is expensive to store and retain and hard to manage.  While it is difficult to make this oft-repeated statement sound fresh and interesting, the simple fact is that file data growth drives continuing customer challenges and storage industry innovation. Today, all you have to say is “file growth cost and complexity” and your audience fills in the back-story automatically, conjuring images of staffing, energy, data access, retention, and protection challenges.

Many vendors, over many years, have tried to solve the problems of predictable cost effective scale-out NAS performance. A number of well-funded companies came and went without gaining any real traction and hundreds of millions of dollars have gone up in smoke.  Scaling has turned out to be a very difficult problem to solve. Most solutions work well for large or small files, but not for both—leading many companies to deploy a scale-out NAS solution alongside a commodity, entry-level NAS solution to deal with metadata. The difficulty is further demonstrated by the fact that storage industry behemoths, while making progress, have not been able to get the job done either by acquisition or internal development.

ESG has been following IBRIX for several years, since well before its acquisition by HP. We’ve written about it, spoken with customers, and performed several Lab Validations. IBRIX was born in the high-performance computing arena and early animation successes with Disney and Pixar put it on the map. To its credit, while the file system started out highly specialized, IBRIX expanded the product to benefit not just niche markets like medical imaging, scientific research, and animation, but general purpose file serving and file sharing as well. Its segmented architecture makes it work for both large files and large numbers of small files, expanding its usage and target market.

What impressed ESG Lab was not just the technology and virtually unlimited scalability, but IBRIX’s commitment to effective partnering, go-to-market, and messaging strategies. IBRIX was smart to keep a narrow focus on scale-out NAS and to concentrate on OEM solutions with Dell and HP, which led to interest from EMC and IBM. Over time, the configuration and GUI were dramatically simplified and IBRIX focused on improving serviceability, usability, and manufacturability. All of this hard work resulted in its acquisition by HP in 2009.

In this most recent Lab Validation, ESG Lab confirmed that the IBRIX segmented file system running on industry-standard servers and storage from HP delivers outstanding levels of performance and scalability for small and large files. An excellent large file throughput rate of 2.20 GB/sec can be achieved by a single HP X9320 scaling in a near-linear fashion as couplets are added to a single file system. Small file performance was outstanding as a single X9320 cluster created 5.1 million 4 KB files in an hour.

Who would have guessed that companies overwhelmed by Word and PowerPoint archives and ever-growing volumes of backup to disk data could benefit from the same solution as those burdened by 100-TB annual growth of genome sequencing data? Who knew that a NAS file system developed for high-performance computing could evolve into a graceful, cost-effective scale-out solution with predictable and near-linear performance for small and large files and everyday applications?  The challenges that scale-out NAS solves are much more “everyday” than “lunatic fringe,” and the X9320 makes it consumable by almost anyone. If you are facing file system growth and complexity challenges, you should consider the X9320.  If you’re struggling with the bandwidth intensive challenges associated with backup to disk, deep archives, and big data analytics, start with an X9320 as the foundation for your scale-out storage needs.  It’s affordable, includes commercial features like snapshots and replication, and lets NFS and CIFS work on the same file system. You can buy a scale-out architecture that will grow with you and meet the needs of your business without interruption. The IBRIX segmented file system, combined with HP’s servers and storage (not to mention HP’s buying power and supply-chain advantage), brings what started as a niche solution to the masses.

Appendix

[2] See the Appendix for more configuration details.

[3] The bit rates for each content type are listed in Table 8, which can be found in the Appendix.

[4] 5,131,623 files divided by 3,600 seconds equals 1,495 files per second.

Introduction

Storage Center from Dell Compellent was designed to provide efficient, agile, and resilient networked storage with a goal of reducing storage cost and complexity while meeting the growing needs of the business. This report documents hands-on testing of Storage Center version 5.4 with a focus on the capacity, recoverability, and performance efficiency of the Compellent Dynamic Block Architecture. Testing covered Compellent’s approach to multi‑tiered storage, referred to as Data Progression, as well as its deep integration and manageability in VMware virtual server environments and automated migration of virtual machines between sites with the recently-added Live Volume feature. One of the key goals of this report is to highlight the capabilities of Compellent Data Progression as compared to emerging sub-LUN tiering solutions from other leading storage vendors.

Background

IT departments continue to struggle with the costs of storage, which includes not only the cost of acquisition but also the ongoing operational expenses associated with storage management. Growing demand for increased capacity and the need to provide assured availability and flexible recovery scenarios are challenges as well. As shown in Figure 1, a recent ESG survey indicates that rising costs, rapid data growth, and data protection are at the top of the list of challenges associated with meeting the storage needs of applications.[1]

Keeping up with the growing storage needs of virtual server environments and the cost and complexity of data migrations are critical concerns as well. And last, but not least, IT managers are looking for products and tools which can automate the management, optimization, and capacity balancing of storage resources associated with ever-growing information assets.

A storage solution with an architecture that dynamically automates data placement and protection at the block level is needed to address each of these challenges as it stores and protects application data using the right tier of storage, at the right time, at the right price.

Storage Center 5.4

Storage Center is a SAN attached storage solution that uses a combination of intelligent software, a pair of clustered storage controllers built from industry-standard server hardware, host  interface controllers (e.g., Fibre Channel, iSCSI), and one or more drive enclosures to store and protect an organization’s data. Drive enclosures can be populated with multiple tiers of storage to meet a variety of price and performance requirements (e.g., SAS and SATA), with the ability to “mix and match” storage technologies and interfaces in a modular fashion.

Along with a fourth generation controller boasting a 25% IO performance increase and more controller memory and PCI-e slots, Storage Center 5.4 also offers support for 6 Gbps SAS drives, 2.5” SAS enclosures for higher density, and support for the latest host connectivity options (10 GigE iSCSI and FCoE).

Compellent, which was recently acquired by Dell, was founded in 2002 by a visionary team of storage industry veterans. Storage Center was architected from the ground up with a powerful page-based architecture that automates the movement and protection of data at the block level data using capacity residing on different tiers of storage. As shown in Figure 2, policies are used to automatically use higher performing “tier-1” storage for write data and frequently accessed read data. Dell’s Data Progression functionality automatically migrates infrequently accessed blocks of data to a more cost effective tier of near-line storage. Replays (a.k.a., snapshots) are automatically placed on lower tier(s) of storage for cost effective recovery.

Since Compellent first began shipping systems with its innovative Data Progression feature in 2003, a number of leading storage vendors have begun to adopt a similar approach with a technology that has since become known as sub-LUN tiering. At that time, the Dynamic Block Architecture was also used to reduce the cost of disk capacity via a thin provisioning feature which Dell refers to as Dynamic Capacity. Once again, Compellent was one of the first to introduce what may be better known by many as thin provisioning. The Dynamic Block Architecture also enables a number of powerful capabilities including WAN efficient replication of recovery data between sites (Remote Replays) and Live Volume which create a single view of application data residing on a pair of Compellent Storage Center solutions deployed within the same—or different—data centers.

ESG Lab Validation

ESG Lab performed hands-on evaluation and testing of Storage Center version 5.4 at a Dell facility in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Testing was intended to validate the Dynamic Block Architecture’s delivery of efficient, agile, and resilient storage services. ESG Lab looked at several aspects of the Storage Center solution, focusing on:

• Capacity efficiency with Dynamic Capacity
• Performance acceleration with Data Progression
• Efficient disk-based recoverability with local and remote snapshots (Remote Instant Replay)
• Storage and server virtualization with VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V integration
• Advanced agility and recoverability with Live Volume

Getting Started

The test bed used during the ESG Lab Validation is shown in Figure 3. A Microsoft Windows physical server and a VMware vSphere virtual server were connected via 8 Gbps Fibre Channel to a Storage Center solution with a mix of SSD, FC, and SAS drives. The test bed specifics can be found in Table 1 of this report’s appendix, with nearly 80% being large but lower-performing “tier 3” drives and the rest being tier-2 or tier-1 to quantify the performance benefit after tiering up to faster storage with Data Progression and the efficiency of snapping down to lower cost storage during Replay testing. A similar Storage Center configuration located in a simulated remote site was used during remote Replay and Live Volume testing.

Capacity

Compellent’s page-based Dynamic Architecture is used to implement the Dynamic Capacity feature generally known in the industry as thin provisioning. Dynamic Capacity is used to quickly and efficiently allocate storage on demand without consuming blocks that would otherwise be wasted before a server actually used them. As opposed to legacy storage systems that have recently been upgraded to support thin provisioning, Dynamic Capacity was built into the Compellent architecture from the beginning and is the default behavior for storage provisioning.

Figure 4 illustrates the difference between Compellent Dynamic Capacity and traditional provisioning. In this example, a new 250 GB volume has been created and presented to a server. In both cases, the server sees 250 GB of available capacity. With traditional provisioning, that capacity is exclusively dedicated to the server, regardless of when or how much the server actually consumes. On the right, Dynamic Capacity presents the same capacity to the server, but consumes only the blocks that have been written by applications. In this example, a small fraction of the 250 GB in usable capacity has been used. ESG research and conversations with a number of early adopters of thin provisioning indicates that customers have reduced the cost of storage capacity by a factor of 50% or more compared to traditional provisioning method.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab tested Dynamic Capacity using a simple deployment of file server storage. A 249 GB volume was created using the web-based Storage Center management console and attached to a server running the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. A file system was created and a drive letter was assigned with the Microsoft Disk Administrator utility. A Windows Explorer properties view of the drive is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 6 shows that the actual disk space consumed for the 249 GB volume is only 138 MB.

Performance

Data Progression leverages the Dynamic Block Architecture to move individual blocks of data to different tiers of storage based on predefined or custom policies. Data Progression is managed at the page level, with each page being composed of one or more blocks of data (the default page size is 2 MB). These pages can then be managed for performance and other goals by intelligently placing them on the most appropriate type of storage (e.g., SSD, SAS, SATA), RAID-levels (e.g., RAID-10, RAID-5), and even track-placement on a given spindle (Fast Track).

The Compellent Dynamic Block Architecture stores write data on a pool of blocks residing on the fastest performing tier of storage. As illustrated in the example shown in Figure 7, writes are stored on a pool of storage protected with a high performance RAID-10 algorithm. Reads are serviced from that same group of drives until the Data Progression algorithm kicks in (the default is once per day at 7 PM).

Data Progression migrates infrequently used blocks to a more cost effective tier of storage based on policies managed by an administrator. In this example, data progression migrates first to RAID-5 storage in the tier-1 pool (note that this novel approach provides a cost effective way to avoid the performance penalty associated with RAID-5 writes). Later, the automated Data Progression algorithm moves infrequently accessed data to a cost effective second tier of storage. If and when data becomes “hot” again, Data Progression reverses the process and migrates the blocks back to the higher performing tier.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab application workloads and the industry standard open source IOmeter utility were used to quantify the performance benefit that can be achieved with Data Progression.[2] An online transaction processing (OLTP) database workload that simulates the activity of a multi-user Microsoft SQL Server application was tested. A virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) workload that simulates a VMware View virtual desktop infrastructure using the linked clone method to share operating system “gold” images was also tested.

Data Progression testing was performed with an 8 Gbps Fibre Channel attached Compellent Storage solution that was configured with three tiers of storage:

• Tier 1: Four 200 GB SSD devices
• Tier 2: Forty-three 150 GB 15K RPM SAS drives
• Tier 3: Eleven 2 TB 7.2K RPM SATA drives

Application workloads were tested after Data Progression had run with a goal of measuring the performance boost that can be achieved with the fully automated page-level tiering algorithms built into Compellent Storage Center version 5.4. The results are summarized in Figure 8 and Figure 9.

ESG Lab observed what Dell referred to as common guidance in that only a relatively small amount of the higher‑performing storage was added to the environment. In conversation, ESG learned that most Compellent customers solve their capacity issues by purchasing only additional lower tier drives. Similarly, those same customers solve their performance issues by buying a smaller high-performance drives for a new or augmented top tier. This is a welcome contrast to the legacy approach of having to relocate entire data sets between storage arrays or tiers as workload performance needs change over time.

What the Numbers Mean

• The response times for the database application were 60% faster when moved from tier-3 SATA devices to tier-1 SSD devices.
• Faster response times at the IO level, which are shown as less in Figure 8, are magnified at the application level where each database transaction typically requires multiple IO requests.
• Moving the virtual desktop workload from tier-2 SAS drives to tier-1 SSD drives increased the number of IOs per second by 98%.
• ESG Lab measured IO activity of 20 IOs per second (IOPs) for an ESG analyst over the course of an eight hour work day. Using that value as representative of a typical knowledge worker, a recorded IO rate of 5,453 IOPS can support up to 272 heavy VDI users—98% more than was achieved with tier-2 SAS drives.

As notable as the numbers are, the experience was equally noteworthy. After configuring the IO tests with the initial storage, ESG Lab found it very easy to enable a higher-performing tier of storage. As the Compellent algorithms took effect, ESG was able to observe the increased performance as the faster storage began being utilized.

Recoverability

The Compellent Dynamic Block Architecture is used to create disk-based point-in-time Replays (a.k.a., snapshots). Administrators use Replays to perform non-disruptive backups of production data, as seen in Figure 10, as well as for application testing, development, and fast recovery of deleted files or from corrupted data. In this example, a file created at 11:55 AM was recovered from disk using a Replay Volume created at 12:10. From an end-user standpoint, the Replay was used to dial back in time and recover the file using a point-in-time image created before the corruption.

Compellent’s Dynamic Block Architecture not only enables blocks to seamlessly move between media tiers for optimized performance and cost, but is also the enabling technology for local and remote Replays. The Dynamic Block Architecture enables capabilities that are often not supported in snapshot implements within legacy storage solutions:

1. Replay data is stored on a lower cost tier of storage compared to the pool where the primary data resides. For example, a volume residing on high speed SAS drives can be protected with Replay capacity that resides on denser, more affordable SATA drives.
2. Replay capacity is delivered on demand from a pool of available blocks. Replay capacity does not have to be reserved up front.
3. Remote Replays send only the latest changes over the network to a remote Storage Center. This reduces WAN bandwidth requirements as it creates a cost effective remote mirror for disaster recovery.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab used a Compellent Replay to recover from simulated data corruption. Specifically, ESG Lab created a volume from a replay so that the production server would continue as is, while a mountable version of the volume from a previous point in time was used for the recovery.

Because a Replay is simply a different list of pointers to blocks within the same Dynamic Block Architecture, a previous point in time consumes almost no space on its own, as seen in Figure 11 where both the production volume and the replay volume are visible in the left-hand tree, but the Replay Volume only consumes only 78 MB of actual disk space.

Figure 12 shows the same Replay volume as a separately mountable and usable resource on a Windows Server.

The key here is to recognize that the Replay volume is in fact “just pointers,” but Windows couldn’t tell the difference. While Figure 11 shows the replay volume made up of only 78 MB of overhead, Windows sees an entirely separate 250 GB volume. For this test, ESG Lab was able to easily create a Replay volume and then mount it to the original production server so that a previous version of a file could be accessed. The same capability can be used to create new server volumes from a master-image scenario.

Virtualization

According to recent ESG research,[3] 70% of organizations are using more than one server virtualization platform. Just as IT has managed and maintained a heterogeneous operating system environment, evidence also suggests that multiple hypervisors will be deployed. IT is heterogeneous by nature, so this makes complete sense. All hypervisors essentially do the same job, but licensing fees for proprietary products are driving enterprises to adopt a second choice. The increasing maturity of Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 servers running Hyper-V are grabbing enterprise attention, but VMware is not necessarily being displaced where it exists.

A natural pairing to Compellent’s virtualization of storage is to combine Storage Center with server virtualization platforms, including both VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. This pairing is done from two perspectives:

• A hypervisor-aware perspective from within Storage Center
• Compellent-embedded information within server virtualization management tools

ESG Lab Testing

Figure 13 shows the multiple Storage Centers used during testing and the range of operating systems and virtual server hypervisors connected to them. In the expanded view on the right side, one can see ESXi and Windows Server 2008 R2 (Hyper-V) servers, each with multiple storage LUNs attached to each hypervisor.

ESG Lab tested Compellent’s integration with VMware ESX and vSphere 5.0 by monitoring and managing several typical storage functions from within the vCenter interface. It should be noted that similar integration was observed through the Microsoft PowerShell command language that provides scripting control for Hyper-V environments; however, the integration was best observed in the graphical vSphere UI.

ESG Lab observed many of the same provisioning activities and interfaces done earlier with physical servers but using the vSphere Client interfaces. Specifically, Figure 14 shows similar data to what was observed in Figure 6, related to a particular volume’s consumption of storage across multiple tiers within the Storage Center.

What is most notable about the integration is the “Compellent View” tab in the VMware vSphere management console as shown in Figure 14. In this example, the Compellent attributes of the storage associated with a virtualized server are shown. Several common monitoring and management tasks were executed from this VMware management console.

To further test the integration, ESG Lab attempted to manage the ESX storage from its normal view within the vSphere Configuration Tab, as seen in Figure 15.

Specifically, ESG Lab tested the ability to invoke a “Replay,” commonly referred to as a snapshot, from within vSphere. To accomplish this, ESG Lab selected an ESX cluster in the left-pane of vSphere. After selecting storage in the hardware selection pane, a right click on a volume revealed the Compellent sub-menu of commands shown in Figure 15.

ESG Lab anticipates that VMware administrators will be highly impressed with and empowered by the clean integration of Compellent storage with ESX hosts. With only minimal orientation to the Compellent terms and concepts, some very advanced storage/virtualization activities were accomplishable without ever leaving vSphere.

Data Agility and Mobility

The same Dynamic Block Architecture that enables blocks to seamlessly move between media tiers for optimized performance and recovery can also be used for online migration and synchronization of blocks between Storage Centers. This powerful capability simplifies the migration of virtual machines between sites and the migration of data between Compellent Storage Centers. The virtual machine migration capability is depicted in Figure 16.

In this example, servers located in two different data centers have been configured as a virtual server cluster. The virtual server platform is being used to move an application running in a virtual machine from one data center to the other. While the virtual machine is moved using industry standard virtual server technology (e.g., VMware VMotion, Microsoft Live Migration), Compellent Live Volume replicates changed blocks over the WAN and creates a single consistent view of data regardless of which data center is being used for production.

This powerful capability is an efficient, automated, and cost effective alternative to methods that have become available over the past few years. For example, VMware storage VMotion provides similar functionality, but requires too much server processing power and network bandwidth to make it practical for use between data centers. This can also be achieved with expensive clustering hardware that provides a view of storage between data centers deployed at each site.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab tested the Live Volume feature by first creating an asynchronously replicated volume between two Storage Centers connected across a campus environment in a VMware environment.

Shown in Figure 17, ESG Lab selected a volume that was storing virtual machines from one of the hypervisors and was able to configure replication by simply right clicking on the primary volume and selecting which Storage Center would hold the alternate copy.

The most notable option in Figure 17 is the ability to automatically swap roles between the copies. This is the key benefit of the Live Volume feature in that, regardless of which host may be initially driving IO, the volume is adaptive. If the IO were to move from a host on one Storage Center to the other—for example, as part of a server-level recovery or migration scenario—the Storage Centers would mutually identify that the IO was now being generated from the other side and the direction of the replication traffic would transparently reverse. ESG Lab tested this by moving workloads between production hosts on either side of the Storage Center pair and observing the IO shifts between the sides and the directional shift of replication.

With Live Volume configured and replicating automatically, moving a running virtual machine to another data center was simply performed using the VMware vSphere client. Using the standard user interface for VMware VMotion, a virtual machine was dragged and dropped from one virtual server to the other. In the screenshot shown in Figure 19, the migrate option accessed from a right click on a virtual machine was used to launch the migration wizard. The virtual machine migration completed in less than five minutes. A heavy IO workload started before the VMotion was used to notice a momentary dip in performance, which lasted about three seconds. The virtual machine remained up and available throughout the test.

As seen in Figure 19, planned downtime or other re-hosting events was tested by ESG Lab with a few easy mouse clicks within vSphere that then leveraged Compellent’s Live Volume capability for a successful migration.

ESG Lab Validation Highlights

Along with the various “Why this Matters” conclusions throughout the report, the following is a summary of the actual hands-on tests and their outcomes:

• ESG Lab validated the performance and flexible cost-benefit of the Dynamic Block Architecture that underlies the Storage Center platform.
• ESG Lab confirmed that the right data blocks are placed on the most appropriate layer of storage based on relative demand and price/performance. In fact, Compellent anecdotally states that many customers often do not purchase any incremental tier-1 storage following the initial purchase because their capacity growth issues are addressed by the lower storage—not withstanding new workload requirements or performance innovations such as SSD as a new top tier.
• ESG Lab confirmed the ease of use and transparent operation of Compellent’s multi-tier storage solution.
• ESG Lab observed impressive integration between Compellent’s own management tools and those of hypervisors and server platforms as well as third-party monitoring, which collectively adds to Compellent’s value because the capabilities become attainable from  existing management interfaces.
• ESG Lab confirmed the Replay capabilities of Storage Center to yield site-level resilience, as well as easy volume-level data recoveries.
• Live volume was used to perform an online VMotion of a VMware virtual machine between data centers. The VMotion operation was easy to configure and monitor from the VMware vSphere console. The virtual machine remained up and available during the migration.

Issues to Consider

While ESG Lab found many commendable aspects of Dell’s Storage Center, the following are a summary of considerations for future development by the Compellent team and/or factors to consider by prospective customers:

• While the integration of Storage Center with VMware vCenter was impressive and logical, parity for other hypervisors is not yet in place. With the anticipated release of Microsoft’s next generation of management tools in System Center 2012, Compellent has an opportunity to provide similar integration into not only virtualization management (VMM 2012), but also systems management (OpsMgr 2012) which would likely provide parity for Citrix Xen configurations.
• While Live Volume can be used for online migration of storage between Compellent Storage Center solutions, it does not support data migrations between heterogeneous disk arrays from different vendors. If a downtime window cannot be tolerated, a traditional host-based data migration utility or a network resident data mover can be used to migrate storage from another product to a Dell Compellent Storage Center.
• While the VMware vSphere plug-in provides access to typical Storage Center management tasks, the ability to perform a Live Volume swap operation from a VMware management console is not yet supported. Dell advised ESG that this is planned for an upcoming release.

The Bigger Truth

One of the greatest challenges IT faces today is managing unabated data growth in dynamic, virtualized environments. Innovation and automation are needed to reign in the cost and complexity associated with unrelenting growth and ever-changing business requirements. Virtualization technologies are needed to simplify, consolidate, and automate routine IT functions.

Innovative virtualization technologies are being deployed by a growing number of IT organizations. A recent ESG survey of 1,602 IT professionals indicates that server virtualization is leading the charge. Seventy-four percent of respondents report that they are actively using server virtualization.[4] Server virtualization, like storage virtualization, is powerful game-changing technology that can be used to consolidate and simplify complex IT infrastructure. Like the early adopters of server virtualization, forward-looking IT managers are turning to highly virtualized storage solutions to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and enhance the recoverability and agility of a consolidated storage infrastructure. ESG has confirmed that Compellent Storage Center version 5.4 is a powerful virtual storage solution that’s built on top of a pool-based Dynamic Block Architecture.

ESG Lab tested several sought-after storage capabilities, including thin provisioning, remote replication, rapid disk-based recovery, virtual machine migration between sites, and deep integration with leading virtual server platforms. In all cases, the answer to “Why is this different from a traditional SAN solution?” came back to Compellent’s Dynamic Block Architecture. The Dynamic Block Architecture is the DNA that enables simple and capacity efficient deployment of new volumes on physical and virtual servers. Dynamic Block Architecture also makes it easy to move applications and virtual machines between sites from a storage perspective, and to quickly recover data with capacity and network efficiency in mind.

ESG Lab was impressed with the flexibility and power of the Dynamic Block Architecture when first testing Storage Center in 2008.[5] Valuable capabilities that are now known in the industry as thin provisioning and sub-LUN tiering were built into the architecture and have been proven in the field by thousands of customers since the first product was shipped in 2005. As legacy storage architectures evolve to support these valuable capabilities, the flexibility and power of the foundational Dynamic Block Architecture is turning into a competitive advantage for Dell.   Features like Live Volume, which provides cost-effective clustered access to a virtualized pool of storage over distance, would be very difficult to implement without a page-based architecture.

While advanced features like Live Volume are powerful, the bottom line with the Dynamic Block Architecture is its ability to reduce the overall cost of purchasing and maintaining storage. Writes are automatically directed to the highest performing tier. Data Progression moves infrequently used data to a more cost effective tier and Replays are stored on the most cost effective tier. Due to these core capabilities, the Dell team indicates that many customers are using affordable SATA drives for most of their capacity with a couple of fast SAS drives for an automatic performance boost. That’s significantly more affordable than a traditional disk array full of expensive FC drives.

ESG Lab commends the Compellent team for the forethought needed to envision the value of the Dynamic Block Architecture back in 2002. This architecture has created a sound foundation that makes it possible for Dell to cost effectively deliver features and value that established storage vendors are struggling to match. ESG Lab congratulates Dell for another smart acquisition that will continue to add value to its data center portfolio. At the end of the day, ESG Lab finds that the goal of developing efficient, agile, and resilient storage has been met with the latest release of Compellent Storage Center. IT managers shopping for their next storage infrastructure upgrade—especially those that have embraced the benefits of  server virtualization—should seriously consider the benefit of virtualizing their storage infrastructure with the growing family of Fluid Data solutions from Dell.

Appendix

Additional ESG Coverage of Compellent

ESG has covered (Dell) Compellent in previous reports, including:

• ESG Market Landscape Report, Replication Technologies for Business Continuity, August 2011
• ESG Market Landscape Report, Storage Tiering, July 2011
• ESG In the News, Dell nears Acquisition Deal for Compellent, December 2010
• ESG Technology Brief, Compellent – Extremely Efficient Storage, April 2009
• ESG Lab Validation, Storage Center 4.0, February 2008

[2] http://www.enterprisestrategygroup.com/using-esg-lab-workloads/

[3] Source: ESG Research Report, The Evolution of Server Virtualization, November 2010.

[4] Source: ESG Research Report, The Evolution of Server Virtualization, November 2010.

[5] A list of previously published Compellent-focused ESG publications can be found in the Appendix.

Introduction

Background

Data protection processes and technologies are vital to ensuring an organization’s operational, regulatory, legal, and financial health; as a result, they are included in every IT budget and are top of mind for data center staff. However, due to the complexity and expense of backup, restore, and disaster recovery, many organizations are willing to invest in methods that can save time, reduce costs, and simplify management.

Respondents to a recent ESG survey indicated that their most significant data protection investments would be in the areas of improving disaster recovery (35%), backing up virtual server environments (30%), improving application backup (26%), and desktop/laptop backup and recovery (23%) (see Figure 1). Also among the top ten were re-architecting backup environment/processes and ROBO backup and recovery.[1]

Backup is the first line of defense against downtime. Using the cloud can improve the backup/recovery process by enabling secure, reliable data protection for data centers and remote offices while reducing costs. But IT organizations still face an uphill battle: employees increasingly depend on mobile devices that are hard to keep track of and manage. In addition, as data volumes continue to skyrocket, backup windows shrink and SLAs become harder to meet. Budget constraints also drive organizations to seek solutions that are highly optimized while requiring little administration.

Powered by Asigra

Asigra is a leading provider of cloud-based backup and recovery solutions for IT organizations and managed service providers. Supporting private, public, and hybrid cloud environments, Asigra provides backup and continuous data protection (CDP) with global deduplication, compression, and WAN optimization to minimize costs. Intelligent and simple to deploy and use, Asigra offers rollback to any point across all devices, ensuring the ability to meet a range of recovery time and recovery point objectives. Asigra Cloud Backup is easy to manage and scale, and is plug-compatible with existing backup software, enabling simple deployment in data centers and remote offices. Its security features are second to none and combining it with Asigra’s Recovery and Restore Assurance (R2A) creates a trusted environment whether backup is on-premises or provided as a service.

In June 2011, Asigra introduced version 11, the first offering to provide end-to-end cloud-based data protection for an organization’s entire digital footprint. As shown in Figure 2, Asigra collects data from data centers, remote offices, and user laptops and desktops as well as smart phone and tablet computers. This data is then deduplicated, compressed, and encrypted before being transmitted across the network to a cloud-based target site to be stored. Target systems can be located onsite, in a remote data center, or with a service provider.

Components

Asigra’s offering consists of two primary components: the DS-Client installed in the data center (or wherever the production data resides) and the DS-System located where the backups will reside. This architecture enables Asigra to support a wide range of physical and virtual operating systems, servers, databases, applications, and storage environments. Enterprise and SME organizations benefit from a pay-as-you-grow licensing model based on the amount of compressed and deduplicated data stored. A central GUI is used for management and task automation. For management efficiency, Asigra can be mass deployed to physical and virtual LAN devices as well as remote devices; configuration, scheduling, backup set creation, and retention rules can all be set simultaneously.

At the production site, a single DS-Client runs on a dedicated Windows, Linux, or Macintosh server to collect data from all agent-less production sources. After data is gathered, it is deduplicated, compressed, encrypted, and sent over the WAN to the target site.

The DS-System is installed in the cloud core or data center at the target site. This Windows or Linux server accepts the data set and maintains, manages, and validates the online storage repository residing on direct, network, or storage area network attached storage (DAS, SAN, or NAS). DS-Systems are available in standalone or highly available N+1 configurations. For long term retention, the optional Backup Lifecycle Management (BLM) Archiver enables archiving of DS-System data. Additional Replication DS-Systems can be located in a disaster recovery site for redundancy and high availability; DS-Client data is redirected there if the primary DS-System is unavailable. Additional components are available, including:

• LAN Discovery, which analyzes and reports on storage inefficiencies, enabling IT to optimize storage and backup processes to reduce costs and improve performance.
• Autonomic Healing, which scans to detect problems and sends alerts so IT can intervene.
• Local Storage, which provides hybrid cloud support as it stores copies locally for fast recovery.
• A Network Operation Console (DS-NOC), which provides centralized management of backup and recovery services.
• A license management server, which provides a single point of management for Asigra licenses, regardless of where Asigra services are deployed: within the organization or around the globe.

The balance of this report explores how Asigra Hybrid Cloud backup version 11 can be used to address the key challenges associated with deploying a cloud-based backup solution:

Breadth

Asigra’s 25-year heritage of providing cloud-based backup services has resulted in a single solution that can be used to protect a broad and comprehensive set of data sources from mission-critical applications residing in the data center; to business-critical applications running in remote and branch offices; to mobile laptops, PCs, smartphones, and tablets located anywhere on the globe.

Trust

Trusted cloud-based backup and restore services are provided via FIPS-140 certified military-grade encryption of data in transit and at rest. No Asigra system has been breached or compromised in 20 years—a testament to Asigra’s commitment to trust and security.

Efficiency

Asigra reduces the resource impact of cloud-based backup and recovery services using an advanced and field-proven agent-less architecture design to reduce application server overhead. Utilization of LAN, WAN, and disk-based backup capacity are reduced through a combination of global deduplication and compression.

Performance

Version 11 includes several new features designed to improve performance, including support for 10 Gbps LAN interface and continuously-improving IO processing and delta algorithms. Asigra has also added API-level integration with NetApp FAS devices, which enables Asigra to leverage NetApp snapshots.

Scalability

The field-proven power and durability of the N+1 DS-System design can be used to meet the backup and recovery performance needs of any organization regardless of size.

Partners, Powered by Asigra

Asigra’s multi-tenant cloud backup and recovery solution enables providers to deliver cloud-based backup services to customers of all sizes. Everything a provider needs to deploy, provision, and sell cloud-based backup is included. Asigra Cloud Backup includes a multi-dimensional, multi-tiered billing system for rapid service deployment and centralized manageability. SLA monitoring and management tools simplify administration, while extensive reporting, notification, and audit trail capabilities ensure providers can track problems, identify unprotected devices, and remain apprised of backup status. In addition to the data security features, the multi-tenant provider environment has role-based vault access which enables different information to be viewed by backup administrators and business executives, and restricts access for account changes. Tiered recovery lets providers offer service tiers at various price points so customers can match data value to protection cost.

Several new features in version 11 are designed to improve management and help service providers differentiate their offerings:

• DS-NOC is the new network operations center designed to improve visibility and control of all DS-Systems, DS-Clients, BLM Archivers, and DS-Billing Centers. License status, capacity usage, and backup completion can be viewed at a glance. Providers can manage across all systems and drill down to view details and manage DS-Clients.
• The single cloud License Server manages all licenses of all components across the Asigra environment. This enables providers to allocate storage capacity where and when needed, while allowing components to draw capacity from the unallocated pool.
• Central configuration of DS-Clients enables service providers to differentiate their offerings based on levels of customer control and flexibility. Providers can offer a range of service levels at different price points.
• Multi-tenant DS-Client enables providers to save the costs of managing individual DS-Clients with the new secure tenant layer that allows a single DS-Client to house multiple customers.

ESG Lab Validation

ESG Lab performed hands-on evaluation and technical auditing of several aspects of the Asigra v11 technologies and solution offerings at the Asigra headquarters in Toronto, Canada.

Getting Started

The test bed during the ESG Lab Validation is shown in Figure 3. A subset of the operating systems, server virtualization platforms, applications, laptops, and smart devices that can be protected with Asigra Cloud backup version 11 is shown to the left. Testing was performed using a combination of 10 Gbps and 1 Gbps Ethernet network connections in a simulated data center. Online backup data was stored on a NetApp FAS 3170 Filer. A BLM archive and a disaster recovery solution at a simulated remote site were also used to test the “Powered by Asigra” solution.

Breadth

ESG Lab testing began with an examination of the breadth and depth of the data types that can be protected with an Asigra solution. A server virtualization platform powered by Microsoft Hyper-V was tested (VMware ESX and Citrix Xen Server are also supported). An Oracle 11g database was backed up and restored with the “classic” Asigra agent-less method and the more recently added SBT method. Microsoft Windows Server file system data was tested with and without the use of Microsoft volume shadow copy (VSS) services. Microsoft SQL Server was also tested with and without the use of VSS. Microsoft Exchange was tested with the classic agent-less method and with DS-Recovery Tools, which provided mailbox-level recovery. Data residing in a folder on an IBM iSeries server was backed up and restored as well.

A laptop running the Windows 7 operating system was tested along with an assortment of smart devices including an Apple iPhone, an Apple iPad, and a tablet running the Android operating system. A summary of the data types that can be protected with Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 is depicted in Table 1. The protectable types tested by ESG are indicated with a check mark.

Smartphone and tablet support is one of the most noticeable enhancements in version 11. The deceptively simple single-click user interface for an Apple iPhone is shown in Figure 4. With a single operation, this interface was used to back up iPhone contacts using an application that’s freely available at the Apple App Store.

While Figure 4 shows the simplicity that is expected with smart devices, Figure 5 shows how user-centric laptops and desktops offer a wider variety of options and customization. This simple and easy to use GUI was used to backup and restore files in a “my documents” folder on a laptop running the Windows 7 operating system.

ESG Lab examined the mass deployment option which can be used to automatically deploy the Asigra Mobile application to hundreds or thousands of users within an organization. This option can be used to automatically “push” the installation of the Asigra Mobile application to users when they log into a Microsoft active directory domain. Mass deployment can not only be used to automatically install and start the Asigra Mobile application the next time a user logs in, it can also be used to deploy custom backup policies. Restores from the DS-System can be performed by an administrator or by end-users.

Agent-less server backups were tested with the DS-Client user interface. Asigra agent-less backups leverage industry standard operating systems and APIs to retrieve backup data over the network, ensuring that backups do not drain processing power from servers, and they simplify Asigra deployments and upgrades. The agent-less design simplifies scaling to easily accommodate additional capacity, applications, backup sources, and target sites. In addition, it eliminates security risks that agents can present.

Wizards provided within the DS-Client user interface were used to configure, execute, and monitor backups and restores for physical and virtual servers running a variety of operating systems and applications. A DS-Client screen shot showing a subset of the servers that were backed up during ESG Lab testing is shown in Figure 6.

Trust

One of the most common concerns when evaluating a cloud-based backup solution is security. More specifically, users must know that they can trust their backup provider, whether that is a third-party cloud provider or even their  own IT team. The key to the Asigra security model is in the security keys themselves, which are DES‑128 by default with up to 256-bit encryption supported. As shown in Figure 7, backup data is encrypted at the source site and remains so both in flight as well as at rest on Asigra DS-System storage. The encryption key is typically held by the customer or a third-party escrow agent, which eliminates the risk of unauthorized decryption by Asigra or a cloud backup provider. The screenshot of an encrypted data block at rest that’s shown toward the right of Figure 7 was obtained during ESG Lab testing.

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification is the most stringent security accreditation defined for cryptographic modules by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Asigra participated in a multi-year effort to become “FIPS Certified” with a goal of obtaining independent verification of the security of its encryption methods.[2] As of this writing, Asigra is the only remote backup solution to have achieved this level of certification.[3]

Efficiency

Asigra was designed from the ground up with a goal of optimizing the use of expensive WAN bandwidth and disk capacity. By removing redundant data (globally across sites and servers) and compressing unique data at the client before transferring backup data across the network, Asigra reduces the amount of disk storage and bandwidth needed for backups. The result is efficient use of network bandwidth and disk capacity, faster backup and recovery times, and lower costs. The efficiency of the Asigra architecture is summarized in Figure 8. Delta differences in data to be backed up are digitally hashed and compared with data that has already been stored. Only unique data is compressed before it is sent over the network and stored on disk at the DS-System.

ESG Lab Testing

• A 500 MB Oracle database was backed up[5]
• After deduplication and compression, only 83 MB of data was stored on the DS-System (6:1 reduction)
• Three rows were deleted and two rows were added
• The second  backup moved only 2.8 MB of delta data was stored (180:1 reduction)

Performance

Performance is a key concern when implementing a cloud-based backup solution. First and foremost, the solutions must be designed to optimize the use of WAN or LAN bandwidth. As described previously in the efficiency section of this report, Asigra uses a combination of global source-side deduplication and compression to minimize the amount of data sent over a WAN or LAN. Restore performance is optimized with hybrid cloud support that leverages an optional copy of the most recently backed up data on a DS-Client. With an Asigra hybrid cloud, the vast majority of restore requests for accidentally deleted, overwritten, or corrupted files are provided by a LAN attached DS-Client, which eliminates the need for sending data over a WAN.
Asigra version 11 includes several new features designed to improve performance. These include support for 10 Gbps LAN interfaces, upgrades to Asigra internal process that speed reads/writes, multi-threaded deduplication, and improved IO processes and delta algorithms. Asigra has also added API-level integration with NetApp FAS devices, which enables Asigra to leverage NetApp snapshots.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab tested NetApp snapshot integration and 10 Gbps LAN support. NetApp Filer snapshot integration was easily configured from the DS-System management console. The use of snapshots to improve the performance and parallelism of restore and remote replication operations was confirmed via an audit of Asigra activity logs.

Support for a 10 Gbps LAN was tested with a variety of application servers and data types. An end-to-end 10 Gbps network was created with 10 Gbps Ethernet connections from application servers through DS-Clients to DS-Systems and NetApp storage. A server running the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system was used to compare backup performance over 10 Gbps vs. 1 Gbps Ethernet. The elapsed time required to backup eight 20 GB files was used to calculate the overall throughput of backup jobs. The results are shown in Figure 9.

What the Numbers Mean

• The 1 GigE test bed delivered 111 MB/sec of backup throughput.
• 111 MB/sec over a single GigE interface is very impressive when compared with a theoretical maximum of 128 MB/sec for a single GigE interface. This extremely efficient use of available bandwidth is due to the continuously improving performance and parallelism developed by Asigra.
• The 10 GigE test bed yielded 205 MB/sec, which is nearly twice the capabilities of a 1 GigE network.
• ESG Lab testing was not able to saturate the available bandwidth of the 10 GigE network. This is likely due to the fact that the network was no longer the limiting factor in the overall throughput of the backup solution. The bottleneck had more likely shifted to the capabilities of the storage in the server being backed up.
• An-end to-end backup throughput rate of 205 MB/sec can be used to back up data at a rate of 738 GB per hour—that’s 5.9 TB during an eight-hour backup window.
• While these results provide a good indicator of the mature and well-tuned performance capabilities of the Asigra architecture, they cannot be used to predict the performance of Asigra technology deployed in a public or hybrid cloud backup with limited WAN bandwidth.

Scalable Manageability

The Asigra Cloud Backup solution was architected to provide online upgrades to transparently meet the changing needs of the business. The clustered N+1 design of the DS-System supports online addition of server and storage capacity.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab performed an online upgrade of an existing DS-System. As shown in Figure 10, a server and additional NetApp disk capacity was added to a two-node DS-System. Backup jobs ran without interruption both upgrades.

The “add node” DS-System wizard was used to add the new server to the cluster. The simple single panel wizard was used to specify the IP address and network port of the new server. Four mouse clicks and three minutes later, the new node had been successfully added to the cluster.

ESG Lab used NetApp network attached storage during the validation. New disk capacity was provisioned with the NetApp management console and added to the cluster. Adding disk capacity to the cluster was performed from an administrator command line interface on each node in the cluster as a new mount point was created on each node.

Next, ESG examined the powerful centralized management capabilities of Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 with a focus on the power of the LAN Discovery tool, the management DS-NOC, and the License Server.

The LAN discovery tool was used to scan the Asigra lab network. Servers, PCs, and laptops were discovered and analyzed by the tool. The tool can not only be used to plan and size an Asigra deployment, it also provides powerful reporting utilities which provide insight into the types of data that needs to be protected (e.g., file types), the size of data to be protected (e.g., the files consuming the most disk capacity), and the frequency of access (e.g., files that haven’t been accessed in over a month).

As shown in Figure 11, the centralized management capabilities of the Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 include the LAN Discovery tool for planning and optimization, the DS-NOC for centralized management of end-to-end Asigra data protection services, and the License Server for centralized monitoring and management of licensed Asigra modules (e.g., DS-System, BLM Archiver, Mobile DS-System, and Consumer DS-System).

One of the many powerful LAN Discovery reports generated during ESG Lab testing is shown in Figure 12. This particular report is used to indentify dormant files that can be groomed before configuring an Asigra backup policy. Note that nearly half of the files haven’t been accessed in over a year (shown in light blue in the chart on the right), yet those files represent only a small percentage of the total file size to be protected (shown in light blue in the chart on the left).

The home screen for the DS-NOC, which was introduced in Asigra Cloud Backup version 11, is shown in Figure 13. ESG Lab was extremely impressed by the look and feel and power of this single pane of glass management interface. This single screen clearly shows recent backup toward the middle of the screen. Clicking on a backup job was used to drill down and diagnose backup or restore failures. The four graphs on this home page provide a clear view of all types of backup and restore activity, licensed storage capacity, and server usage.

Next, ESG Lab examined the capabilities of the Asigra License Server. An Asigra License Server can be deployed anywhere in the world—all that is required is a laptop connected to the Internet. An emergency License Server can optionally be deployed as a backup. This server is used to provide automated monitoring, administration, and update of all Asigra licenses (DS-System, BLM, Mobile DS-System, Consumer DS-System). Licenses are maintained on an encrypted USB device that’s plugged into the License Server. Updating a license is performed by creating and sending an encrypted copy of existing license data to Asigra. The DS-NOC screenshot shown in Figure 14 depicts the current license usage of systems in the Asigra lab during ESG Lab testing.

ESG Lab Validation Highlights

• Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, and Android devices were backed up to an Asigra-enabled cloud using a simple one click user interface.
• Asigra mobile device support was used to backup and restore files residing in the “My Documents” folder on a Windows 7 laptop.
• Agent-less backups were performed for a variety of data types including Microsoft and Linux file systems, Oracle and SQL Server databases, Microsoft Exchange e-mail, and IBM iSeries folders.
• Backups and restores were performed using the native Oracle RMAN interface and SBT method.
• The security of backup and restore operations was verified via an audit of Asigra’s FIPS-140 certification and an examination of encrypted backup data at rest.
• ESG Lab confirmed that Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 takes advantage of the increased bandwidth and performance of 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks.
• A centralized license manager was used to monitor and upgrade licensed capacity for a variety of Asigra modules (DS-System, BLM, and Consumer DS-System).
• The DS-NOC was used to view recent activity, health, capacity and license usage from a single pane of glass.
• Multi-tenant support and the ability to manage customer specific billing were confirmed.

Issues to Consider

• While Asigra backs up only to disk, it is designed to integrate with existing tape-based backup solutions from leading vendors. Disk-based Asigra backups can be exported as a file system and protected with existing backup software from leading vendors, ensuring compatibility with existing offsite and compliance processes. This capability also lets customers begin by using Asigra Cloud Backup to augment existing protections strategies; for example, customers may start with Asigra for virtual servers or ROBO backup, and expand as their confidence level increases.
• Depending on the volume of data, some customers may want to create their initial backup by delivering data on a storage device instead of backing up over the network. ESG did not test this feature, but Asigra supports this type of backup seeding using a variety of portable devices. A similar method is supported for large bare metal restores.
• In deploying data protection across the environment, customers should consider all parts of the cost equation. The total cost of deploying and managing individual backups directly to specified target devices, using different point solutions for each type of production data, providing bandwidth, and scaling these silos separately may be quite high, particularly as data volumes grow and compliance drives longer retention. While some are reluctant to take a risk with cloud-based backup, the TCO advantages indicate a significant potential cost advantage.
• While the License Server provides a centralized platform for simplified software license administration, automated billing for license costs and collection processes that create and return updated license files would be a welcome addition in a future version of the Asigra Cloud Backup platform. Asigra has advised ESG that this enhancement is planned for a future release.

The Bigger Truth

Since its founding in 1986, Asigra has been a truly innovative company. It offered backup to disk 25 years ago before disk-based backup was a gleam in anyone else’s eye. And Asigra did it without agents, because that was the best way for the customer—not the easy way.

Fast forward to 2011: while many improvements have been added over the years, including leveraging cloud computing to reduce costs and simplify management, the most recent version of Asigra’s software is once again ahead of the field, with a breadth of offerings like no other. Many organizations protect data center servers one way, LAN-based laptops and desktops another way, and simply cross their fingers that smartphones and tablets remain intact; Asigra protects all devices with the same solution. The ability to perform enterprise-wide, cloud-based data protection across all devices, including even smart phones and tablets, from a single platform is a competitive advantage for service providers; the solution’s elegance, efficiency, and management ease help keep costs down so providers can maximize profit.

Interest in backup-as-a-service is clearly growing. Data protection research conducted by ESG in 2010 indicated that while 17% of survey respondents were currently using a third-party online backup service, an additional 38% were evaluating or considering it.[6] Maturation of cloud solutions, along with faster bandwidth speed, make private, public, and hybrid clouds a viable option for backup. The reasons are compelling: reducing backup infrastructure, usage-based pricing, consolidating backup processes.

However, the challenges that must be overcome in order to make that leap are significant. Worries over data security make organizations reluctant to take a risk on backup to the cloud, and well-publicized cloud failures have not helped the cause. Another concern is bandwidth cost; cloud-based backups will consume more network resources, so efficiency features are required to reduce the amount of data being transmitted. And then there is the challenge of managing backups for multiple device types, ensuring different RPOs and RTOs, and scaling as needed.

ESG Lab hands-on testing has validated that Asigra provides end-to-end protection for an organization’s entire digital footprint. Smartphones and tablets were backed up and restored using an extremely simple single-button user interface. PCs and mobile laptops were backed up and restored with an application that’s not only easy to use, but simple to install using a mass deployment model that can be used to automatically push and configure policy-based backup software to thousands of employees. Servers in data center and simulated remote and branch offices were tested as well.

ESG Lab testing confirmed that Asigra Hybrid Cloud Backup version 11 addresses the key challenges associated with providing cloud-based backup and recovery services. Trust is provided with military-grade FIPS-140 certified encryption of data in flight and at rest. Efficiency is delivered with source-side global deduplication and compression. Performance is optimized with a continuously-improving efficient architecture that maximizes use of precious LAN and WAN resources and recently added 10 Gigabit Ethernet support. Scalability is provided with an N+1 architecture that can be easily upgraded online. Last, but not least, ESG Lab was most impressed with the recently added license manager and DS-NOC with a powerful and intuitive user interface which provides centralized monitoring, management, reporting, and billing for service providers.

It’s no surprise that Asigra Hybrid Cloud Backup and Recovery exceeded 400,000 protected sites in April 2011, up from 250,000 in 2010. The quality of its solutions is unmatched; Asigra goes all in, whatever the feature. For example, Asigra doesn’t just provide security features, it delivers encryption up to AES 256 and obtained military-grade FIPS-140 certification. Efficiency? Asigra offers not just deduplication, but global deduplication across all sites and all devices including smartphones and tablets. Asigra’s lengthy résumé in the backup space has provided the company with intimate knowledge of both customer and service provider needs, and Asigra Cloud Backup Version 11 demonstrates its expertise. So, if you are looking for cloud backup experts, look no further than Asigra.

Appendix

[2] http://www.asigra.com/fips-140-2-certification-backup

[3] http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2010.htm#1240

[4] Source: ESG Research Report, Cloud Computing Adoption Trends, May 2011.

[5] The 500 GB demonstration database included in the Oracle distribution kit was used during testing.

[6] Source: ESG Research Report, 2010 Data Protection Trends, April 2010.

Introduction

Background

Data protection processes and technologies are vital to ensuring an organization’s operational, regulatory, legal, and financial health; as a result, they are included in every IT budget and are top of mind for data center staff. However, due to the complexity and expense of backup, restore, and disaster recovery, many organizations are willing to invest in methods that can save time, reduce costs, and simplify management.

Respondents to a recent ESG survey indicated that their most significant data protection investments would be in the areas of improving disaster recovery (35%), backing up virtual server environments (30%), improving application backup (26%), and desktop/laptop backup and recovery (23%) (see Figure 1). Also among the top ten were re-architecting backup environment/processes and ROBO backup and recovery.[1]

Backup is the first line of defense against downtime. Using the cloud can improve the backup/recovery process by enabling secure, reliable data protection for data centers and remote offices while reducing costs. But IT organizations still face an uphill battle: employees increasingly depend on mobile devices that are hard to keep track of and manage. In addition, as data volumes continue to skyrocket, backup windows shrink and SLAs become harder to meet. Budget constraints also drive organizations to seek solutions that are highly optimized while requiring little administration.

Powered by Asigra

Asigra is a leading provider of cloud-based backup and recovery solutions for IT organizations and managed service providers. Supporting private, public, and hybrid cloud environments, Asigra provides backup and continuous data protection (CDP) with global deduplication, compression, and WAN optimization to minimize costs. Intelligent and simple to deploy and use, Asigra offers rollback to any point across all devices, ensuring the ability to meet a range of recovery time and recovery point objectives. Asigra Cloud Backup is easy to manage and scale, and is plug-compatible with existing backup software, enabling simple deployment in data centers and remote offices. Its security features are second to none and combining it with Asigra’s Recovery and Restore Assurance (R2A) creates a trusted environment whether backup is on-premises or provided as a service.

In June 2011, Asigra introduced version 11, the first offering to provide end-to-end cloud-based data protection for an organization’s entire digital footprint. As shown in Figure 2, Asigra collects data from data centers, remote offices, and user laptops and desktops as well as smart phone and tablet computers. This data is then deduplicated, compressed, and encrypted before being transmitted across the network to a cloud-based target site for storage. Target systems can be located onsite, in a remote data center, or with a service provider.

Components

Asigra’s offering consists of two primary components: the DS-Client installed in the data center (or wherever the production data resides) and the DS-System located where the backups will reside. This architecture enables Asigra to support a wide range of physical and virtual operating systems, servers, databases, applications, and storage environments. Enterprise and SME organizations benefit from a pay-as-you-grow licensing model based on the amount of compressed and deduplicated data stored. A central GUI is used for management and task automation. For management efficiency, Asigra can be mass deployed to physical and virtual LAN devices as well as remote devices; configuration, scheduling, backup set creation, and retention rules can all be set simultaneously.

At the production site, a single DS-Client runs on a dedicated Windows, Linux, or Macintosh server to collect data from all agent-less production sources. After data is gathered, it is deduplicated, compressed, encrypted, and sent over the WAN to the target site.

The DS-System is installed in the cloud core or data center at the target site. This Windows or Linux server accepts the data set and maintains, manages, and validates the online storage repository residing on direct, network, or storage area network attached storage (DAS, SAN, or NAS). DS-Systems are available in standalone or highly available N+1 configurations. For long term retention, the optional Backup Lifecycle Management (BLM) Archiver enables archiving of DS-System data. Additional Replication DS-Systems can be located in a disaster recovery site for redundancy and high availability; DS-Client data is redirected there if the primary DS-System is unavailable. Additional components are available, including:

• LAN Discovery, which analyzes and reports on storage inefficiencies, enabling IT to optimize storage and backup processes to reduce costs and improve performance.
• Autonomic Healing, which scans to detect problems and sends alerts so IT can intervene.
• Local Storage, which provides hybrid cloud support as it stores copies locally for fast recovery.
• A Network Operation Console (DS-NOC), which provides centralized management of backup and recovery services.
• A license management server, which provides a single point of management for Asigra licenses, regardless of where services are deployed: within the organization or around the globe.

The balance of this report explores how Asigra Hybrid Cloud backup version 11 can be used to address the key challenges associated with deploying a cloud-based backup solution.

Breadth

Asigra’s 25-year heritage of providing cloud-based backup services has resulted in a single solution that can be used to protect a broad and comprehensive set of data sources ranging from mission-critical applications residing in the data center; to business-critical applications running in remote and branch offices; to mobile laptops, PCs, smartphones, and tablets located anywhere in the world.

Trust

Trusted cloud-based backup and restore services are provided via FISP-140 certified military-grade encryption of data in transit and at rest. No Asigra system has been breached or compromised in 20 years—a testament to Asigra’s commitment to trust and security.

Efficiency

Asigra reduces the resource impact of cloud-based backup and recovery services using an advanced and field-proven agent-less architecture to reduce application server overhead. Utilization of LAN, WAN, and disk-based backup capacity are reduced through a combination of global deduplication and compression.

Performance

Version 11 includes several new features designed to improve performance, including support for 10 Gbps LAN interface and continuously-improving IO processing and delta algorithms. Asigra has also added API-level integration with NetApp FAS devices, which enables Asigra to leverage NetApp snapshots.

Scalable Manageability

Version 11 enhancements, including the recently added DS-NOC and license manager, combined with the field-proven power and durability of the N+1 DS-System design, can be used to meet the backup and recovery performance needs of any organization regardless of size.

ESG Lab Validation

ESG Lab performed hands-on evaluation and technical auditing of several aspects of the Asigra v11 technologies and solution offerings at the Asigra headquarters in Toronto, Canada.

Getting Started

The test bed used during ESG Lab Validation testing is shown in Figure 3. A subset of the operating systems, server virtualization platforms, applications, laptops, and smart devices that can be protected with Asigra Cloud backup version 11 is shown to the left. Testing was performed using a combination of 10 Gbps and 1 Gbps Ethernet network connections in a simulated data center. Online backup data was stored on a NetApp FAS 3170 Filer. A BLM archive and a disaster recovery solution at a simulated remote site were also used to test the “Powered by Asigra” solution.

Breadth

ESG Lab testing began with an examination of the breadth and depth of the data types that can be protected with an Asigra solution. A server virtualization platform powered by Microsoft Hyper-V was tested (VMware ESX and Citrix Xen Server are also supported). An Oracle 11g database was backed up and restored with the “classic” Asigra agent-less method (RMAN) and the more recently added SBT method. Microsoft Windows Server file system data was tested with and without the use of Microsoft volume shadow copy (VSS) services. Microsoft SQL Server was also tested with and without the use of VSS. Microsoft Exchange was tested with the classic agent-less method and with DS-Recovery Tools, which provided mailbox level recovery. Data residing in a folder on an IBM iSeries server was backed up and restored as well.

A laptop running the Windows 7 operating system was tested along with an assortment of smart devices including an Apple iPhone, an Apple iPad, and a tablet running the Android operating system. A summary of the data types that can be protected with Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 is depicted in Table 1. The protectable types tested by ESG Lab are indicated by a check mark.

Smartphone and tablet support is one of the most noticeable enhancements in version 11. The deceptively simple single-click user interface for an Apple iPhone is shown in Figure 4. With a single operation, this interface was used to back up iPhone contacts using an application that’s freely available at the Apple App Store.

While Figure 4 shows the simplicity that is expected with smart devices, Figure 5 shows how user-centric laptops and desktops offer a wider variety of options and customization. This simple and easy to use GUI was used to backup and restore files in a “my documents” folder on a laptop running the Windows 7 operating system.

ESG Lab examined the mass deployment option which can be used to automatically deploy the Asigra Mobile application for hundreds or thousands of users within an organization. This option can automatically “push” installation of the Asigra Mobile application to users when they log into a Microsoft active directory domain. Mass deployment can not only be used to automatically install and start the Asigra Mobile application the next time a user logs in, it can also be used to deploy custom backup policies. Restores from the DS-System can be performed by an administrator or by end-users.

Agent-less server backups were tested with the DS-Client user interface. Asigra agent-less backups leverage industry standard operating systems and APIs to retrieve backup data over the network, ensuring that backups do not drain processing power from servers, and they simplify Asigra deployments and upgrades. The design also simplifies scaling to easily accommodate additional capacity, applications, backup sources, and target sites. In addition, it eliminates security risks that agents can present.

Wizards provided within the DS-Client user interface were used to configure, execute, and monitor backups and restores for physical and virtual servers running a variety of operating systems and applications. A DS-Client screenshot showing a subset of the servers that were backed up during ESG Lab testing is shown in Figure 6.

Trust

One of the most common concerns when evaluating a cloud-based backup solution is security. More specifically, users must know that they can trust their backup provider, whether it is a third-party cloud provider or even their  own IT team. The key to the Asigra security model is in the security keys themselves, which are DES‑128 by default with up to 256-bit encryption supported. As shown in Figure 7, backup data is encrypted at the source site and remains so both in flight as well as at rest on Asigra DS-System storage. The encryption key is typically held by the customer or a third-party escrow agent, which eliminates the risk of unauthorized decryption by Asigra or a cloud backup provider. The screenshot of an encrypted data block at rest shown toward the right of Figure 7 was obtained during ESG Lab testing.

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification is the most stringent security accreditation defined for cryptographic modules by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Asigra participated in a multi-year effort to become “FIPS certified” with a goal of obtaining independent verification of the security of its encryption methods.[2] As of this writing, Asigra is the only remote backup solution to have achieved this level of certification.[3]

Efficiency

Asigra was designed from the ground up with a goal of optimizing the use of expensive WAN bandwidth and disk capacity. By removing redundant data (globally across sites and servers) and compressing unique data at the client before transferring backup data across the network, Asigra reduces the amount of disk storage and bandwidth needed for backups. The result is efficient use of network bandwidth and disk capacity, faster backup and recovery times, and lower costs. The efficiency of the Asigra architecture is summarized in Figure 8. Delta differences in data to be backed up are digitally hashed and compared with data that has already been stored. Only unique data is compressed before it is sent over the network and stored on disk at the DS-System.

ESG Lab Testing

• A 500 MB Oracle database was backed up[5]
• After deduplication and compression, only 83 MB of data was stored on the DS-System (6:1 reduction)
• Three rows were deleted and two rows were added
• The second  backup moved only 2.8 MB of delta data was stored (180:1 reduction)

Performance

Performance is a key concern when implementing a cloud-based backup solution. First and foremost, the solutions must be designed to optimize the use of WAN or LAN bandwidth. As described previously in the efficiency section of this report, Asigra uses a combination of global source-side deduplication and compression to minimize the amount of data sent over a WAN or LAN. Restore performance is optimized with hybrid cloud support that leverages an optional copy of the most recently backed up data on a DS-Client. With an Asigra hybrid cloud, the vast majority of restore requests for accidentally deleted, overwritten, or corrupted files are provided by a LAN attached DS-Client, which eliminates the need for sending data over a WAN.

Asigra version 11 includes several new features designed to improve performance. These include support for 10 Gbps LAN interfaces, upgrades to Asigra internal process that speed reads/writes, multi-threaded deduplication, and improved IO processes and delta algorithms. Asigra has also added API-level integration with NetApp FAS devices, which enables Asigra to leverage NetApp snapshots.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab tested NetApp snapshot integration and 10 Gbps LAN support. NetApp Filer snapshot integration was easily configured from the DS-System management console. The use of snapshots to improve the performance and parallelism of restore and remote replication operations was confirmed via an audit of Asigra activity logs.

Support for a 10 Gbps LAN was tested with a variety of application servers and data types. An end-to-end 10 Gbps network was created with connections from application servers through DS-Clients to DS-Systems and NetApp storage. A server running the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system was used to compare backup performance over 10 Gbps vs. 1 Gbps Ethernet. The elapsed time required to back up eight 20 GB files was used to calculate the overall throughput of backup jobs. The results are shown in Figure 9.

What the Numbers Mean

• The 1 GigE test bed delivered 111 MB/sec of backup throughput.
• 111 MB/sec over a single GigE interface is very impressive when compared with a theoretical maximum of 128 MB/sec for a single GigE interface. This extremely efficient use of available bandwidth is due to the continuously improving performance and parallelism developed by Asigra.
• The 10 GigE test bed yielded 205 MB/sec, which is nearly twice the capabilities of a 1 GigE network.
• ESG Lab testing was not able to saturate the available bandwidth of the 10 GigE network. This is likely due to the fact that the network was no longer the limiting factor in the overall throughput of the backup solution. The bottleneck had more likely shifted to the capabilities of the storage in the server being backed up.
• An end-to-end backup throughput rate of 205 MB/sec can be used to back up data at a rate of 738 GB per hour—that’s 5.9 TB during an eight-hour backup window.
• While these results provide a good indicator of the mature and well-tuned performance capabilities of the Asigra architecture, they cannot be used to predict the performance of Asigra technology deployed in a public or hybrid cloud backup with limited WAN bandwidth.

Scalable Manageability

The Asigra Cloud Backup solution was architected to provide online upgrades to transparently meet the changing needs of the business. The clustered N+1 design of the DS-System supports online addition of server and storage capacity.

ESG Lab Testing

ESG Lab performed an online upgrade of an existing DS-System. As shown in Figure 10, a server and additional NetApp disk capacity was added to a two-node DS-System. Backup jobs ran without interruption during both upgrades.

The  “add node” DS-System wizard was used to add the new server to the cluster. The simple single panel wizard was used to specify the IP address and network port of the new server. Four mouse clicks and three minutes later, the new node had been successfully added to the cluster.

ESG Lab used NetApp network attached storage during the validation. New disk capacity was provisioned with the NetApp management console and added to the cluster. Adding disk capacity to the cluster was performed from an administrator command line interface on each node in the cluster as a new mount point was created on each node.

Next, ESG examined the powerful centralized management capabilities of Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 with a focus on the power of the LAN Discovery tool, the management DS-NOC, and the License Server.

The LAN Discovery tool was used to scan the Asigra lab network. Servers, PCs, and laptops were discovered and analyzed by the LAN Discovery tool. The tool can not only be used to plan and size an Asigra deployment, it also provides powerful reporting utilities which offer insight into the types of data that needs to be protected (e.g., file types), the size of data to be protected (e.g., the files consuming the most disk capacity), and the frequency of access (e.g., files that haven’t been accessed in over a month).

As shown in Figure 11, the centralized management capabilities of Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 include the LAN Discovery tool for planning and optimization, the DS-NOC for centralized management of end-to-end Asigra data protection services, and the License Server for centralized monitoring and management of licensed Asigra modules (e.g., DS-System, BLM Archiver, Mobile DS-System, and Consumer DS-System).

One of the many powerful LAN Discovery reports generated during ESG Lab testing is shown in Figure 12. This particular report is used to indentify dormant files that can be groomed before configuring an Asigra backup policy. Note that nearly half of the files haven’t been accessed in over a year (shown in light blue in the chart on the right), yet those files represent only a small percentage of the total file size to be protected (shown in light blue in the chart on the left).

The home screen for the DS-NOC, which was introduced in Asigra Cloud Backup version 11, is shown in Figure 13. ESG Lab was extremely impressed by the look and feel and power of this single pane of glass management interface. This single screen clearly shows recent backup toward the middle of the screen. Clicking on a backup job was used to drill down and diagnose backup or restore failures. The four graphs on this home page provide a clear view of all types of backup and restore activity, licensed storage capacity, and server usage.

Next, ESG Lab examined the capabilities of the Asigra License Server. An Asigra License Server can be deployed anywhere in the world—all that is required is a laptop connected to the Internet. An emergency License Server can optionally be deployed as a backup. This server is used to provide automated monitoring, administration, and updating of all Asigra licenses (DS-System, BLM, Mobile DS-System, Consumer DS-System). Licenses are maintained on an encrypted USB device that’s plugged into the License Server. Updating a license is performed by creating and sending an encrypted copy of existing license data to Asigra. The DS-NOC screenshot shown in Figure 14 depicts the current license usage of systems in the Asigra lab during ESG Lab testing.

ESG Lab Validation Highlights

• Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, and Android devices were backed up to an Asigra-enabled cloud using a simple one-click user interface.
• Asigra mobile device support was used to back up and restore files residing in the “My Documents” folder on a Windows 7 laptop.
• Agent-less backups were performed for a variety of data types including Microsoft and Linux file systems, Oracle and SQL Server databases, Microsoft Exchange e-mail, and IBM iSeries folders.
• Backups and restores were performed using the native Oracle RMAN interface and SBT method.
• The security of backup and restore operations was verified via an audit of Asigra’s FIPS-140 certification and an examination of encrypted backup data at rest.
• ESG Lab confirmed that Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 takes advantage of the increased bandwidth and performance of 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks.
• A centralized license manager was used to monitor and upgrade licensed capacity for a variety of Asigra modules (DS-System, BLM, and Consumer DS-System).
• The DS-NOC was used to view recent activity, health, capacity, and license usage from a single pane of glass.

Issues to Consider

• While Asigra backs up only to disk, it is designed to integrate with existing tape-based backup solutions from leading vendors. Disk-based Asigra backups can be exported as a file system and protected with backup software from leading vendors, ensuring compatibility with existing offsite and compliance processes. This capability also lets customers begin by using Asigra Cloud Backup to augment existing protections strategies; for example, customers may start with Asigra for virtual servers or ROBO backup, and expand as their confidence level increases.
• Depending on the volume of data, some customers may want to create their initial backup by delivering data on a storage device instead of backing up over the network. ESG did not test this feature, but Asigra supports this type of backup seeding using a variety of portable devices. A similar method is supported for large bare metal restores.
• In deploying data protection across the environment, customers should consider all parts of the cost equation. The total cost of deploying and managing individual backups directly to specified target devices, using different point solutions for each type of production data, providing bandwidth, and scaling these silos separately may be quite high, particularly as data volumes grow and compliance drives longer retention. While some are reluctant to take a risk with cloud-based backup, the TCO advantages indicate a significant potential cost advantage.
• While the License Server provides a centralized platform for simplified software license administration,  automated billing for license costs and collection processes that create and return updated license files would be a welcome addition in a future version of the Asigra Cloud Backup platform. Asigra has advised ESG that this enhancement is planned for a future release.

The Bigger Truth

Since its founding in 1986, Asigra has been a truly innovative company. It offered backup to disk 25 years ago before disk-based backup was a gleam in anyone else’s eye. And Asigra did it without agents, because that was the best way for its customer—not the easy way.

Fast forward to 2011: while many improvements have been added over the years, including leveraging cloud computing to reduce costs and simplify management, the most recent version of Asigra’s software is once again ahead of the field, with a breadth of offerings like no other. The ability to perform enterprise-wide, cloud-based data protection across all devices, including even smartphones and tablets, from a single platform is the kind of solution that allows IT departments to excel in service to their customers. Many organizations protect data center servers one way, LAN-based laptops and desktops another way, and simply cross their fingers that smartphones and tablets remain intact; Asigra protects all devices with the same solution.

Interest in backup-as-a-service is clearly growing. Data protection research conducted by ESG in 2010 indicated that while 17% of survey respondents were currently using a third-party online backup service, an additional 38% were evaluating or considering it.[6] Maturation of cloud solutions, along with faster bandwidth speed, makes private, public, and hybrid clouds a viable option for backup. The reasons are compelling: reducing backup infrastructure, usage-based pricing, consolidating backup processes.

However, the challenges that must be overcome in order to make that leap are significant. Worries over data security make organizations reluctant to take a risk on backup to the cloud, and well-publicized cloud failures have not helped the cause. Another concern is bandwidth cost; cloud-based backups will consume more network resources, so efficiency features are required to reduce the amount of data being transmitted. Network performance is also an issue; backups have their own performance requirements to ensure completion within the allotted time, but cannot be allowed to slow other processes. And then there is the challenge of managing backups for multiple device types, ensuring different RPOs and RTOs, and scaling as needed. These issues often leave IT organizations reluctant to try backup to the cloud.

ESG Lab hands-on testing has validated that Asigra provides end-to-end protection for an organization’s entire digital footprint. Smartphones and tablets were backed up and restored using an extremely simple single-button user interface. PCs and laptops were backed up and restored with an application that’s not only easy to use, but simple to install via a mass deployment model that can be used to automatically push and configure policy-based backup software to thousands of employees. Moving to the data center and remote and branch offices, ESG Lab tested backups and restores on a wide variety of operating systems, (Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Linux, IBM iSeries), virtualization platforms (Microsoft Hyper-V), and applications (Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange, Oracle).

ESG Lab testing confirmed that Asigra Hybrid Cloud Backup version 11 addresses the key challenges associated with providing cloud-based backup and recovery services. Trust is provided with military-grade FIPS-140 certified encryption of data in flight and at rest. Efficiency is delivered with source-side global deduplication and compression. Performance is optimized with a continuously-improving efficient architecture that maximizes use of precious LAN and WAN resources and recently added 10 Gigabit Ethernet support. Scalability is provided with an N+1 architecture that can be easily upgraded online. Last, but not least, ESG Lab was most impressed with the recently added license manager and DS-NOC with a powerful and intuitive user interface that provides centralized management of data protection services for an organization’s entire digital footprint.

It’s no surprise that Asigra Hybrid Cloud Backup and Recovery exceeded 400,000 protected sites in April 2011, up from 250,000 in 2010. The quality of its solutions is unmatched; Asigra goes all in, whatever the feature. For example, Asigra doesn’t just provide security features, it delivers encryption up to AES 256, initialization vectors, and even attained military-grade FIPS-140 certification. Efficiency? Asigra offers not just deduplication, but global deduplication across all sites and all devices including handheld endpoints. The same commitment to excellence shows in performance and scalability. So if you are looking for cloud backup experts, look no further than Asigra.

Appendix

[2] http://www.asigra.com/fips-140-2-certification-backup

[3] http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2010.htm#1240

[4] Source: ESG Research Report, Cloud Computing Adoption Trends, May 2011.

[5] The 500 GB demonstration database included in the Oracle distribution kit was used during testing.

[6] Source: ESG Research Report, 2010 Data Protection Trends, April 2010.

Introduction

Background

Data protection processes and technologies are vital to ensuring an organization’s operational, regulatory, legal, and financial health; as a result, they are included in every IT budget and are top of mind for data center staff. However, due to the complexity and expense of backup, restore, and disaster recovery, many organizations are willing to invest in methods that can save time, reduce costs, and simplify management.

Respondents to a recent ESG survey indicated that their most significant data protection investments would be in the areas of improving disaster recovery (35%), backing up virtual server environments (30%), improving application backup (26%), and desktop/laptop backup and recovery (23%) (see Figure 1). Also among the top ten were re-architecting backup environment/processes and ROBO backup and recovery.[1]

Backup is the first line of defense against downtime. Using the cloud can improve the backup/recovery process by enabling secure, reliable data protection for data centers and remote offices while reducing costs. But IT organizations still face an uphill battle: employees increasingly depend on mobile devices that are hard to keep track of and manage. In addition, as data volumes continue to skyrocket, backup windows shrink and SLAs become harder to meet. Budget constraints also drive organizations to seek solutions that are highly optimized while requiring little administration.

Powered by Asigra

Asigra is a leading provider of cloud-based backup and recovery solutions for IT organizations and managed service providers. Supporting private, public, and hybrid cloud environments, Asigra provides backup and continuous data protection (CDP) with global deduplication, compression, and WAN optimization to minimize costs. Intelligent and simple to deploy and use, Asigra offers rollback to any point across all devices, ensuring the ability to meet a range of recovery time and recovery point objectives. Asigra Cloud Backup is easy to manage and scale, and is plug-compatible with existing backup software, enabling simple deployment in data centers and remote offices. Its security features are second to none and, when combined with Asigra’s Recovery and Restore Assurance (R2A), they create a trusted environment whether backup is on-premises or provided as a service.

In June 2011, Asigra introduced version 11, the first offering to provide end-to-end cloud-based data protection for an organization’s entire digital footprint. As shown in Figure 2, Asigra collects data from data centers, remote offices, and user laptops and desktops as well as smart phones and tablet computers. This data is then deduplicated, compressed, and encrypted before being transmitted across the network to a cloud-based target site to be stored. Target systems can be located onsite, in a remote data center, or with a service provider.

Components

Asigra’s offering consists of two primary components: the DS-Client installed in the data center (or wherever the production data resides) and the DS-System located where the backups will reside. This architecture enables Asigra to support a wide range of physical and virtual operating systems, servers, databases, applications, and storage environments. Enterprise and SME organizations benefit from a pay-as-you-grow licensing model based on the amount of compressed and deduplicated data stored. A central GUI is used for management and task automation. For management efficiency, Asigra can be mass deployed to physical and virtual LAN devices as well as remote devices; configuration, scheduling, backup set creation, and retention rules can all be set simultaneously.

At the production site, a single DS-Client runs on a dedicated Windows, Linux, or Macintosh server to collect data from all agent-less production sources. After data is gathered, it is deduplicated, compressed, encrypted, and sent over the WAN to the target site.

The DS-System is installed in the cloud core or data center at the target site. This Windows or Linux server accepts the data set and maintains, manages, and validates the online storage repository residing on direct, network, or storage area network attached storage (DAS, SAN, or NAS). DS-Systems are available in standalone or highly available N+1 configurations. For long term retention, the optional Backup Lifecycle Management (BLM) Archiver enables archiving of DS-System data. Additional Replication DS-Systems can be located in a disaster recovery site for redundancy and high availability; DS-Client data is redirected there if the primary DS-System is unavailable. Additional components are available, including:

• LAN Discovery, which analyzes and reports on storage inefficiencies, enabling IT to optimize storage and backup processes to reduce costs and improve performance.
• Autonomic Healing, which scans to detect problems and sends alerts so IT can intervene.
• Local Storage, which provides hybrid cloud support as it stores copies locally for fast recovery.

The balance of this report explores how Asigra Hybrid Cloud backup version 11 can be used to address the key challenges associated with deploying a cloud-based backup solution:

Breadth

Asigra’s 25-year heritage of providing cloud-based backup services has resulted in a single solution that can be used to protect a broad and comprehensive set of data sources from mission-critical applications residing in the data center; to business-critical applications running in remote and branch offices; to mobile laptops, PCs, smart phones, and tablets located anywhere on the globe.

Trust

Trusted cloud-based backup and restore services are provided via FIPS-140 certified military-grade encryption of data in transit and at rest. No Asigra system has been breached or compromised in 20 years—a testament to Asigra’s commitment to trust and security.

Efficiency

Asigra reduces the resource impact of cloud-based backup and recovery services using an advanced and field-proven agent-less architecture design to reduce application server overhead. Utilization of LAN, WAN, and disk-based backup capacity are reduced through a combination of global deduplication and compression.

Performance

Asigra was designed to overcome the performance challenges associated with backing up to the cloud.  Deduplication and compression reduces the amount of data that is sent over the WAN. Version 11 includes several new features designed to improve performance, including support for 10 Gbps LAN interface and continuously-improving IO processing and delta algorithms.

Scalability

The field-proven power and durability of the N+1 DS-System design can be used to meet the backup and recovery performance needs of any organization regardless of size.

ESG Lab Validation

ESG Lab performed hands-on evaluation and technical auditing of several aspects of the Asigra v11 technologies and solution offerings at the Asigra headquarters in Toronto, Canada.

Getting Started

The test bed used during the ESG Lab Validation is shown in Figure 3. A subset of the operating systems, server virtualization platforms, applications, laptops, and smart devices that can be protected with Asigra Cloud backup version 11 is shown to the left. Testing was performed using a combination of 10 Gbps and 1 Gbps Ethernet network connections in a simulated data center. Online backup data was stored on a NetApp FAS 3170 Filer. A BLM archive and a disaster recovery solution at a simulated remote site were also used to test the “Powered by Asigra” solution.

Breadth

ESG Lab testing began with an examination of the breadth and depth of the data types that can be protected with an Asigra solution. A server virtualization platform powered by Microsoft Hyper-V was tested (VMware ESX and Citrix Xen Server are also supported). An Oracle 11g database was backed up and restored with the “classic” Asigra agent-less method and the more recently added SBT method. Microsoft Windows Server file system data was tested with and without the use of Microsoft volume shadow copy (VSS) services, as was Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft Exchange was tested with the classic agent-less method and with DS-Recovery Tools, which provided mailbox-level recovery. Data residing in a folder on an IBM iSeries server was backed up and restored as well.

A laptop running the Windows 7 operating system was tested along with an assortment of smart devices including an Apple iPhone, an Apple iPad, and a tablet running the Android operating system. A summary of the data types that can be protected with Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 is depicted in Table 1. The protectable types tested by ESG are indicated with a check mark.

Smartphone and tablet support is one of the most noticeable enhancements in version 11. The deceptively simple single-click user interface for an Apple iPhone is shown in Figure 4. With a single operation, this interface was used to back up iPhone contacts using an application that’s freely available at the Apple App Store.

While Figure 4 shows the simplicity that is expected with smart devices, Figure 5 shows how user-centric laptops and desktops offer a wider variety of options and customization. This simple and easy to use GUI was used to backup and restore files in a “my documents” folder on a laptop running the Windows 7 operating system.

ESG Lab examined the mass deployment option which can be used to automatically deploy the Asigra Mobile application to hundreds or thousands of users. This option can be used to automatically “push” the installation of the Asigra Mobile application to users when they log into a Microsoft active directory domain. Mass deployment can not only be used to automatically install and start the Asigra Mobile application the next time a user logs in, it can also be used to deploy custom backup policies. Restores from the DS-System can be performed by an administrator or by end-users.

Agent-less server backups were tested with the DS-Client user interface. Asigra agent-less backups leverage industry standard operating systems and APIs to retrieve backup data over the network, ensuring that backups do not drain processing power from servers, and simplify Asigra deployments and upgrades. The agent-less design facilitates scaling to easily accommodate additional capacity, applications, backup sources, and target sites. In addition, it eliminates security risks that agents can present.

Wizards provided within the DS-Client user interface were used to configure, execute, and monitor backups and restores for physical and virtual servers running a variety of operating systems and applications. A DS-Client screen shot showing a subset of the servers that were backed up during ESG Lab testing is shown in Figure 6.

Trust

One of the most common concerns when evaluating a cloud-based backup solution is security. More specifically, users must know that they can trust their backup provider, whether that is a third-party cloud provider or even the user’s own IT team. The key to the Asigra security model is in the security keys themselves, which are DES‑128 by default with up to 256-bit encryption supported. As shown in Figure 7, backup data is encrypted at the source site and remains so both in flight as well as at rest on Asigra DS-System storage. The encryption key is typically held by the customer or a third-party escrow agent, which eliminates the risk of unauthorized decryption by Asigra or a cloud backup provider. The screenshot of an encrypted data block at rest shown toward the right of Figure 7 was obtained during ESG Lab testing.

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification is the most stringent security accreditation defined for cryptographic modules by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Asigra participated in a multi-year effort to become “FIPS Certified” with a goal of obtaining independent verification of the security of its encryption methods.[2] As of this writing, Asigra is the only remote backup solution to have achieved this level of certification.[3]

Efficiency

Asigra was designed from the ground up with a goal of optimizing the use of expensive WAN bandwidth and disk capacity. By removing redundant data (globally across sites and servers) and compressing unique data at the client before transferring backup data across the network, Asigra reduces the amount of disk storage and bandwidth needed for backups. The result is efficient use of network bandwidth and disk capacity, faster backup and recovery times, and lower costs. The efficiency of the Asigra architecture is summarized in Figure 8. Delta differences in data to be backed up are digitally hashed and compared with data that has already been stored. Only unique data is compressed before it is sent over the network and stored on disk at the DS-System.

ESG Lab Testing

• A 500 MB Oracle database was backed up[5]
• After deduplication and compression, only 83 MB of data was stored on the DS-System (6:1 reduction)
• Three rows were deleted and two rows were added
• The second  backup moved only 2.8 MB of delta data (180:1 reduction)

Performance

Performance is a key concern when implementing a cloud-based backup solution. First and foremost, the solutions must be designed to optimize the use of WAN or LAN bandwidth. As described previously in the efficiency section of this report, Asigra uses a combination of global source-side deduplication and compression to minimize the amount of data sent over a WAN or LAN. Restore performance is optimized with hybrid cloud support that leverages an optional copy of the most recently backed up data on a DS-Client. With an Asigra hybrid cloud, the vast majority of restore requests for accidentally deleted, overwritten, or corrupted files are provided by a LAN attached DS-Client, which eliminates the need to send data over a WAN.
Asigra version 11 includes several new features designed to improve performance. These include support for 10 Gbps LAN interfaces, upgrades to Asigra internal process that speed reads/writes, multi-threaded deduplication, and improved IO processes and delta algorithms.

ESG Lab Testing

Support for a 10 Gbps LAN support was tested with a variety of application servers and data types. An end-to-end 10 Gbps network was created with 10 Gbps Ethernet connections from application servers through DS-Clients to DS-Systems and NetApp storage. A server running the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system was used to compare backup performance over 10 Gbps vs. 1 Gbps Ethernet. The elapsed time required to backup eight 20 GB files was used to calculate the overall throughput of backup jobs. The results are shown in Figure 9.

What the Numbers Mean

• The 1 GigE test bed delivered 111 MB/sec of backup throughput.
• 111 MB/sec over a single GigE interface is very impressive when compared with a theoretical maximum of 128 MB/sec for a single GigE interface. This extremely efficient use of available bandwidth is due to the continuously improving performance and parallelism developed by Asigra.
• The 10 GigE test bed yielded 205 MB/sec, which is nearly twice the capabilities of a 1 GigE network.
• ESG Lab testing was not able to saturate the available bandwidth of the 10 GigE network. This is likely due to the fact that the network was no longer the limiting factor in the overall throughput of the backup solution. The bottleneck had more likely shifted to the capabilities of the server being backed up.
• An-end to-end backup throughput rate of 205 MB/sec can be used to back up data at a rate of 738 GB per hour—that’s 5.9 TB during an eight-hour backup window.
• While these results provide a good indicator of the mature and well-tuned performance capabilities of the Asigra architecture, they cannot be used to predict the performance of Asigra technology deployed in a public or hybrid cloud backup with limited WAN bandwidth.

ESG Lab Validation Highlights

• Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, and Android devices were backed up to an Asigra-enabled cloud using a simple one-click user interface.
• Asigra mobile device support was used to back up and restore files residing in the “My Documents” folder on a Windows 7 laptop.
• Agent-less backups were performed for a variety of data types including Microsoft and Linux file systems, Oracle and SQL Server databases, Microsoft Exchange e-mail, and IBM iSeries folders.
• Backups and restores were performed using the native Oracle RMAN interface and the Oracle SBT method.
• Security of backup and restore operations was verified via an audit of Asigra’s FIPS-140 certification and an examination of encrypted backup data at rest.
• ESG Lab confirmed that Asigra Cloud Backup version 11 takes advantage of the increased bandwidth and performance of 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks.

Issues to Consider

• While Asigra backs up only to disk, it is designed to integrate with existing tape-based backup solutions from leading vendors. Disk-based Asigra backups can be exported as a file system and protected with existing backup software from leading vendors, ensuring compatibility with existing offsite and compliance processes. This capability also lets customers begin by using Asigra Cloud Backup to augment existing protections strategies; for example, customers may start with Asigra for virtual servers or ROBO backup, and expand as their confidence level increases.
• Depending on the volume of data, some customers may want to create their initial backup by delivering data on a storage device instead of backing up over the network. ESG did not test this feature, but Asigra supports this type of backup seeding using a variety of portable devices. A similar method is supported for large bare metal restores.
• In deploying data protection across the environment, customers should consider all parts of the cost equation. The total cost of deploying and managing individual backups directly to specified target devices, using different point solutions for each type of production data, providing bandwidth, and scaling these silos separately may be quite high, particularly as data volumes grow and compliance drives longer retention. While some are reluctant to take a risk with cloud-based backup, the TCO advantages indicate a significant potential cost advantage.

The Bigger Truth

Since its founding in 1986, Asigra has been a truly innovative company. It offered backup to disk 25 years ago before disk-based backup was a gleam in anyone else’s eye. And Asigra did it without agents, because that was the best way for the customer—not the easy way.

Fast forward to 2011: while many improvements have been added over the years, including leveraging cloud computing to reduce costs and simplify management, the most recent version of Asigra’s software is once again ahead of the field with a breadth of offerings like no other. Many organizations protect data center servers one way, LAN-based laptops and desktops another way, and simply cross their fingers that smartphones and tablets remain intact; Asigra protects all devices with the same solution.

Interest in backup-as-a-service is clearly growing. Data protection research conducted by ESG in 2010 indicated that while 17% of survey respondents were currently using a third-party online backup service, an additional 38% were evaluating or considering it.[6] Maturation of cloud solutions, along with faster bandwidth speed, makes private, public, and hybrid clouds a viable option for backup. The reasons are compelling: reducing backup infrastructure, usage-based pricing, consolidating backup processes.

However, the challenges that must be overcome in order to make that leap are significant. Worries over data security make organizations reluctant to take a risk on backup to the cloud, and well-publicized cloud failures have not helped the cause. Another concern is bandwidth cost; cloud-based backups will consume more network resources, so efficiency features are required to reduce the amount of data being transmitted. And then there is the challenge of managing backups for multiple device types, ensuring different RPOs and RTOs, and scaling as needed.

ESG Lab hands-on testing has validated that Asigra provides end-to-end protection for an organization’s entire digital footprint. Smartphones and tablets were backed up and restored using an extremely simple single-button user interface. PCs and mobile laptops were backed up and restored with an application that’s not only easy to use, but simple to install using a mass deployment model that can be used to automatically push and configure policy-based backup software to thousands of employees. Servers in data center and simulated remote and branch offices were tested as well.

ESG Lab testing confirmed that Asigra Hybrid Cloud Backup version 11 addresses the key challenges associated with providing cloud-based backup and recovery services. Trust is provided with military-grade FIPS-140 certified encryption of data in flight and at rest. Efficiency is delivered with source-side global deduplication and compression. Performance is optimized with a continuously-improving efficient architecture that maximizes use of precious LAN and WAN resources and recently added 10 Gigabit Ethernet support. Scalability is provided with an N+1 architecture that can be easily upgraded online.

It’s no surprise that Asigra Hybrid Cloud Backup and Recovery exceeded 400,000 protected sites in April 2011, up from 250,000 in 2010. The quality of its solutions is unmatched; Asigra goes all in, whatever the feature. For example, Asigra doesn’t just provide security features, it delivers encryption up to AES 256 and obtained military-grade FIPS-140 certification. Efficiency? Asigra offers not just deduplication, but global deduplication across all sites and all devices including smart phones and tablets. Asigra’s lengthy résumé in the backup space has provided the company with intimate knowledge of customer needs, and Asigra Cloud Backup Version 11 demonstrates its expertise. So, if you are looking for cloud backup experts, look no further than Asigra.

Appendix

[2] http://www.asigra.com/fips-140-2-certification-backup

[3] http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2010.htm#1240

[4] Source: ESG Research Report, Cloud Computing Adoption Trends, May 2011.

[5] The 500 GB demonstration database included in the Oracle distribution kit was used during testing.

[6] Source: ESG Research Report, 2010 Data Protection Trends, April 2010.

Completion of its 250th Lab Validation

As the gold standard in independent product validation services, ESG Lab provides in-depth testing and analysis of data center technology products for companies of all types and sizes.  Among the first ESG Lab validations in 2003 were incubation technologies from then nascent vendors such as Isilon with scale‑out NAS, Data Domain with deduplication, and Asigra with cloud-based backup.

“Over the years, ESG has become so much more than a provider of quantitative research and analyst reports. They are a trusted advisor to our business and one of the keys to our success in the early days. The industry’s trust in ESG is why we continue to engage with them to validate our product features and direction,” says Asigra Executive VP, Eran Farajun.

Continuing Growth of the ESG Lab Team

As the demand for independent assessments and guidance continues to grow, ESG is meeting the need by growing its capacity through both strategic partner alliances and additions to the ESG Lab team, including Jason Buffington, most recently from Microsoft.

“With over 20 years of industry experience, Jason is a recognized data protection and storage professional and was already known by many of the ESG family. Adding him to not only the ESG Lab team, but the broader ESG expert community, was a perfect fit,” says Brian Garrett, Vice President, ESG Lab.

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