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The Bottom Line on Storage Virtualization

The Bottom Line on Storage Virtualization

As the growth in data and digital files continues to scale exponentially, storage capacity must keep pace. Storage virtualization enables organizations to drive more users on existing platforms and delivers payoffs to the bottom line that strained IT budgets will appreciate.

Virtualizing storage works in a similar fashion to server virtualization by pooling physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears as a single storage device managed from a central console. Once in place, storage virtualization solutions can help IT administrators perform backups, archiving and recovery more easily and in less time by disguising the actual complexity of the storage area network (SAN).

Beyond simplified management, some of the payoffs from storage virtualization include:

• Increased process efficiency: Typically, utilization rates on different storage subsystems are not consistent. By throwing a virtualization layer across your backend storage resources, you have more flexibility in how you access and use them across multiple different arrays. This allows for thin provisioning of storage on the fly, reclaiming storage and pooling resources.
  
  
• More Flexibility and Scale: A traditional storage environment will only allow you to provision a finite amount of storage. With storage virtualization in place, you can provision just the right amount of virtual storage on the fly and increase or decrease that amount as needed. This capability enables you to reclaim previously unused disk capacity.
  
  
• Cost Avoidance: Higher resource utilization with one storage array to manage with one interface can mean putting off a huge investment in a new $500,000 storage array, for example. In this down economy, the ability to delay capital expense is welcome relief for many budget-challenged IT departments.

Storage virtualization can also foster even more ambitious goals in addition to the payoffs we’ve outlined above. Two examples include a greatly increased ability to deploy virtualization elsewhere in the organization and using it as a kick-off point for network convergence. The payoffs from storage virtualization serve as proof that the traditional silo approach to data infrastructure adds costs and complexity to data center infrastructure that’s no longer feasible.

Essentially, storage virtualization software reduces capital (CAPEX) and operating (OPEX) expenses. The bottom line is that storage virtualization solutions can lower total cost of storage and empower the full business value of virtualization—most notably efficiency, flexibility and scale—while containing costs and minimizing disruptions to the business.

Thinking about virtual storage? Post your questions in the comment box and have our virtual storage expert answer them.

 

 

BYOD in the Workplace

“Look what I got for Christmas!”

Although the holidays are long gone, those six words are still affecting IT managers months into the new year.  Then come the next eight words “When can you connect it to our network?” - turning the awe factor into a network nightmare. The excitement surrounding the latest cool gadget quickly dissolves into concerns of security, compliance, control, support, and “will this thing even work?”

The long awaited (and dreaded) day of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is upon us and it is here to stay.  The concept is not new even if the practice is in its infancy. The recent explosion in smart phones, pads, and tablet computers has thrust these issues to the forefront of all organizations. In fact, by 2014 Gartner predicts, “90 percent of all organizations will support corporate applications on personal devices.”  Not so long ago, IT was able to dictate systems and software used in business in an effort to set standards for security, compliance, control, and support which helped to control cost.  BYOD is a game changer for this model.

The New Model

A current trend driving BYOD is organizations giving their employees a budget to purchase their own device. This places the responsibility on the IT Team to ensure it will work with the company systems.  IT can either fight BYOD or embrace it.  Even if IT chooses to rebel against BYOD, end users have multiple cloud options for storage and collaboration and may choose to circumvent policies, opening up the company to unknown risk. If IT chooses to embrace BYOD, they will see that their end users fall right inline and essentially cooperate when they see that their needs being met.  As time progresses, BYOD will become commonplace - the question remains, will your IT department be proactive or reactive? 

If your organization is thinking about implementing or transitioning to a BYOD program, here are some points to think about when developing a BYOD strategy.

Implement Network Access Control (NAC) Having NAC technology in place implements a certain set of protocols to address endpoints (computers, tablets, mobile devices) before they can access the network.  In a nutshell, NAC will not allow any endpoint to access the network unless it complies with the predefined policy. Typical NAC policies include anti-virus protection level, system update level, employee credentials and configuration. For example, if you were an accountant trying to access client files from your company database, NAC would evaluate your current anti-virus level and employee credentials before allowing you to access the shared company database. The value NAC brings is allowing more control over endpoints that may lack updated anti-virus, patches and other host intrusion software that could place more vulnerability on the network.

 Develop and Communicate Security Standards Clearly define and communicate the security requirements for individual devices, pre-approved configuration policies, and most importantly the steps employees need to take in order to properly connect their device to the network. This will help the IT Team keep track of the devices and let employees know what is and is not acceptable.

Examples of Security Standards:

• Users may not store company data through cloud services on personal devices (i.e. Drop box, iCloud, etc).
• Personal devices must have a screen lock password and must time out or go inactive after not being used for 15 minutes.
• Company may remotely wipe the personal device if the device is lost, stolen or if the employee departs the company (voluntarily or involuntarily).

Responsibility Think of BYOD as a partnership between the company and the employee with both parties have different end goals and responsibilities. Dave Merrill, IBM Endpoint Security Strategist points out “while technologies can play the enforcement role by ensuring that all enterprise data is protected per security requirements, a successful BYOD program requires that employees acknowledge and embrace the need for controls that are now enforced on their devices.” Although this part is not easy, employee buy-in is vital when implementing a BYOD program.

Read more from Dave on BYOD via his post Things that matter: BYOD and the Enterprise on the IBM Institute for Advanced Security blog.

 

 It’s time for you weigh in: To BYOD? Or not to BYOD?

School Data Systems Need Backup and Recovery

                      
               

School Data Systems Need Backup and Recovery

 

It all starts with a plan.

Creating a comprehensive plan to protect school data should be as commonplace as executing a school fire drill. Although the reporting of state and federal test scores drives much of the concern about school data, a major system crash can paralyze basic and essential school functions such as teacher grade books, class schedules, library catalogs, and even school lunch operations.

Threats to servers can come from many origins, including the local weather and geography, a district’s electrical grid, potential for theft, vandalism, hacking, and more. Based on the possible variances for your school’s environment, it’s important for you to craft a data crisis response plan unique to your school’s needs.

By developing an understanding of the demands that different threats can put on your data systems, your school will be able to reduce risk and increase confidence that an incident will not become a disaster.

Five Tips to Improve Backup and Disaster Recovery Plans:

1. Prioritize Your Data
   Backing up data on remote servers or via tape backup can be expensive. If you have to choose, decide what a day’s data is worth to your school district. Then determine which data is most important for recovering school operations, should the need to do so occur.
2. Perform Periodic Testing
   It’s surprising how many schools put backup processes in place, but don’t test them regularly to make sure they’re working as they should be. Even if you contract with a vendor, make sure they have a backup plan and do spot checks to verify that the backup is working as planned.
3. Plan for Specific Scenarios
   Despite best efforts to plan, some threats will come to fruition. Consider the types of threats that exist in your area and conceive plans for recovery should such a situation occur. Just because a threat actually happens, doesn’t mean it can’t be recovered from efficiently.
4. Mitigate Onsite Risks
   There are also some steps that can be taken at your facility to improve your odds against a data loss. For example, consider the possibility of moving servers to more secure rooms and make sure that no single point of failure exists on your network.
5. Updates are Critical                                                                                                     Make sure your operating systems and software have the latest updates and patches installed to protect against vulnerabilities. At the rate new viruses are conceived, you can’t afford not to.

Finally, realize that you don’t have to go it alone. There are managed services providers, like us (BCI) who can partner with you to assess your current data systems and backup plans, identify risks and help you to ensure that you’re prepared to respond quickly and competently in the event recovery is needed.