Every day, the amount of data processed and stored in enterprises increases. Company competitiveness, process efficiency, rationality of decisions made, and even its very existence in the market depend on strings of zeros and ones. That’s why it’s so important to ensure proper conditions that meet the standards of secure storage of company information.
Today, entrepreneurs must face numerous challenges if they want to meet the requirements of partners and customers and stay one step ahead of the competition. Agility is key – the ability to quickly adapt to changing business conditions dictated by demand, technological capabilities, and transformations in supply chains.
Challenges and Trends of the “Data Era”
Decisions must be made immediately, and this is possible if we have access to appropriate information, which requires collecting data from numerous applications, internet of things devices, and machines, as well as quickly processing them using, among other things, machine learning algorithms.
As an integrator with many years of experience, we know perfectly well that today data is becoming the foundation of every activity, and additionally their volumes are constantly growing. The more integrated systems, equipment, and processes, the greater the demand for storage media that will accommodate all information and store it safely. In turn, data processing, whether in the center or at the edge of the network, requires high performance but also scaling – when a company starts working on subsequent projects and expands existing processes, it must be sure that it will not slow down its development for reasons as trivial as limited disk space.
We cannot ignore the fact that the increasing amount of processed information and business processes is an additional burden for those responsible for the company’s IT systems. More than once I have seen companies where the IT department was too busy with administrative tasks to be able to prepare the company for new technological challenges or search for ways to improve its operation. That’s why automation of tasks that were often previously performed manually is necessary. The best example is the so-called vicious circle of migration, i.e., the expensive, time-consuming and currently constant process of transferring data between arrays. Added to this is the need to cooperate with private, public, or hybrid cloud. That’s why the basis of datafication, i.e., the process of transitioning to a digital economy, are devices that help control all elements of the company puzzle, as well as ensuring data security.
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What Dell EMC PowerStore Can Do
The answer to the increasing demand for storage are modern disk arrays. This is due to scalability, i.e., the ability to increase capacity and performance of storage media. Recently, one of our partners, Dell Technologies, introduced a device to the market that immediately caught our attention – I mean Dell EMC PowerStore, a solution tailored to help enterprises fit into current trends and use them to accelerate growth and increase profit. In PowerStore, we talk about vertical scalability (scale-up) using tiering, i.e., automatic transfer of the most needed files to the fastest media, i.e., storage class memory, whose responses we measure in microseconds. Adding disks to the array initially linearly increases performance, but the capabilities of controllers and their processors are limited, and it is often difficult to predict at purchase what power will be needed, especially when IoT and Big Data are involved. This problem is solved by horizontal scaling – additional pairs of controllers with media can be added to the Dell EMC PowerStore array.
The PowerStore Manager application handles the array expansion. Of course, the final decision belongs to the administrator, but thanks to the application, they will learn the best solutions in terms of distributing traffic between installed nodes. After the system manager selects the recommended or indicates their own solutions, the program starts automatic data migration. At this point, artificial intelligence used by PowerStore Manager enters the work. AI algorithms constantly analyze communication between applications and the array to best balance loads and fix errors. In turn, the CloudIQ tool monitors the machine’s operating status, which can be checked using the application. Software support enables administrators to deal with other duties.
Technological progress is inevitable. In the context of arrays, it is enough to remember the not so long ago, but common storage of archival data on slow NL-SAS disks. PowerStore designers decided to leave the past behind, choosing an uncompromising solution: the new Dell Technologies array is equipped exclusively with NVMe drives, allowing to fully utilize the speed and low latency of flash drives, working with internal memory modules using the latest Optane SSD drives. What’s more, if the performance of “regular” NVMe SSD (3D-NAND) drives is still not enough, PowerStore also offers support for NVMe SCM (Storage Class Memory) drives, providing performance close to DRAM memory. The use of this technology allows achieving up to 7 times higher speed and three times shorter response time than on previous platforms. Dell EMC PowerStore allows simplifying IT infrastructure by supporting a wide range of traditional and modern tasks – along with the ability to scale architectures vertically and horizontally for blocks, files, and vVol volumes.
Interestingly, while storage servers designed in the era of rotational drives enabled the installation of thousands of disks, PowerStore offers support for “only” 384 SSD drives in the maximum configuration. Why? The solution to the puzzle is the use of always-on data reduction function, using simultaneous compression and deduplication. The manufacturer-guaranteed reduction effectiveness is an impressive 4:1, and these are conservative values, calculated in the least favorable circumstances. As we have already realized, in real applications the reduction factor can be even higher and what’s more, it can grow with the amount of data!
By offering customers PowerStore devices, I am sure that the money they spend will bring them not only better operating parameters but also noticeable savings. The use of such effective data reduction allows reducing costs by drastically reducing the demand for disk space, which also translates into – also saving – less occupied space in server cabinets. Also not without significance will be the much lower energy consumption by SSD drives, which are much more energy-efficient than rotational drives, and in addition there will be many, many fewer of them.
In a standard situation, transitioning from older to newer models is expensive because it requires on one hand new devices, and on the other hand the time needed for migration. By choosing PowerStore, you can forget about these inconveniences – just opt for the Anytime Upgrade program. Thanks to it, throughout the duration of the service contract, you can upgrade the array for free by: replacing it with a higher model with greater performance or with a new generation, which gives better efficiency and additional features. The third option under the program is horizontal scaling – additional pairs of controllers can be added at no cost, and you only need to buy disks.
Data protection is the key to company development – it’s enough to mention the results of research indicating that many businesses fail due to the loss of the most important company information. In care of stored data, the PowerStore array runs services (e.g., alerting, replication, or array management) in containers and uses micro-segmentation – all thanks to the PowerStoreOS system, which ensures stability and security of operation by separating functions and applications. Isolated parts of the system can work together, but on a daily basis they are services independent of each other. The software runs on the array or on a virtual machine thanks to a factory hypervisor, i.e., a tool for managing virtualization processes (the variant depends on the series – PowerStore T or PowerStoreX). Thanks to it, virtual machines have direct access to PowerStore resources, which gives very low latency, so it is useful, for example, in edge computing, i.e., edge data processing. It is worth noting that PowerStoreOS and the hypervisor run on dedicated M.2 disks, which do not take up array space.
Dell EMC PowerStore arrays fully utilize the available disk space through deduplication, i.e., elimination of repeating data blocks, and compression. What’s more, they do not require any action from the administrator – they are running all the time thanks to Intel Quick Assist hardware acceleration, and additionally they do not burden the array during operation. I always try to draw our customers’ attention to security, which is becoming more important every year. That’s why I consider it very important that each disk used in PowerStore is secured by encrypting stored data on the fly, without affecting the array’s operation. Dell EMC PowerStore integrates with the Kubernetes platform and Ansible software. The array can be deployed in hybrid clouds and also connected as a managed service to AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
PowerStore – More Than an Array
Compared to other arrays available on the market, PowerStore is the only one with a built-in hypervisor for managing virtualization. The innovation of the Dell EMC solution is also manifested in the use of container technology. Thus, individual services do not affect each other – e.g., when one needs an update, the others work as before. The coding of container work itself happens from the notebook level, is flexible and possible for immediate deployment. The fourfold data deduplication is also unprecedented – competitive systems provide a maximum of threefold. Dell Technologies’ proposition is also distinguished by an unusual service contract, i.e., the Future Proof program, along with the mentioned Anytime Upgrade service, which gives companies a guarantee of using the latest data storage technologies.
Dell EMC PowerStore is, in my opinion, a great example of a device created based on real user needs: it combines perfectly known and proven elements with bold innovations added exactly where they have the chance to change the most, and complements the whole with thoughtful services and support tailored to real business needs.
Marcin Godula CEO
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