Moshav Bnei Zion P.O.Box 151, 60910 Israel Tel. 972-9-7444474 Fax.

972-97442444

Storage technologies and advanced technologies

• A customer mentioned that the management environment of mid-range

storage (NETAPP, Clarion, EVA) is much easier and simpler than high-
end management environment (DMX, TAGMA, 8000DS). But in the
mid-range environment, replication, especially of large volumes, is
problematical and also in mid-range, the upgrades are more
problematical. On the other hand, in the mid-range, service and
maintenance are cheaper.

• A customer stated that in his opinion mid-range environment is less

reliable than high-end environment, and then crashes strike a large
number of servers. The customer maintains that in his high-end
environment, there are no crashes.

• A number of customers mentioned XIV: Part in production and part in

testing. – In production - not so very critical but in production and also
io intensive – in other words, very good performances. One customer
said that in his opinion, XIV has no certification.

• A customer spoke of the fact that they work a lot with ISCSI – with 50
servers via MDS. Another customer spoke of the problems
encountered in integrating CIFS and ISCSI.

• A customer noted that they were examining Zettapoint – a diagnosis of

what the disks are used for the most, in order to assist Oracle. Both as
regards connections on databases and Veronis – information security -
and it knows what is on the disks. And then there are things such as
“unused permissions”.

STKI comment – in this domain there are many developing technologies. As regards
XVI we have received plenty of feedback from satisfied customers but they are still a
small company. As regards certification we have no information. From our point of
view, they can be used also for important applications – but not for the most important
applications (a year ago, we recommended them only for unimportant applications…).

Organizational structure

A customer noted that a storage group was once together with the UNIX, but at the
same time, the Windows environment gained momentum and therefore the decision
was reached to separate the groups. Today, now that the groups are separated, things
sometimes fall between the cracks. Up to drivers, the storage is used. Above the
drivers, the system is used. In other words, there is a problem - the line between
storage and system. For example, it is undesirable for the system people to touch a
switch.
 Moshav Bnei Zion P.O.Box 151, 60910 Israel Tel. 972-9-7444474 Fax. 972-97442444

Backup and backup to disk

• A customer spoke of backup using TSM. But there are difficulties

since it is not a simple matter to trace knowledge in TSM. Restore
takes time.

• A customer spoke of a backup project of backup to disk using TB60.

They will need another TB200 for 3 years. Backups are performed
daily and are retained in the disk for two weeks only. Some daily
backups are backed up onto cassettes. Users of VERITAS were stuck
at Staging. Anyone wanting to transfer only to a cassette should
purchase additional Symantec-Netbackup software. In the customer’s
opinion, electricity is a very costly component in the domain of backup
to disk – very expensive and not always forming a part of the
calculation. The customer was afraid to go to Diligent which, he
alleges, is too small a company.

• In the opinion of a number of customers it is clear that dedup

(deduplication) will be introduced. CDP will also be introduced, just
like AVAMER was. But this will take time.

• A customer mentioned that they had purchased the Diligent. Absolutely

new. He hopes to reach ratios of 1 to 10 in the first phase only. The
object will be to reduce the quantity of what is recorded on cassettes!

• A customer state he was using Litespeed of Quest – this improves

backup time by a factor of 5 in MSSQL environment.

• A customer stated that they had purchased FilesX backup. There is also
Bare Metal, even though the hardware is different. They also acquired
an EMC replication manager. FilesX do a rapid restoration. Every
record that is not in Local is taken from the backup.

• A customer said they were backing up with Snap. Snaps are preserved
for the past month. Therefore, Legaton backs up only once a month.
Backups are only for the purpose of history.

STKI comment – a domain on the rise, recommended for use. In the long run
we will obtain deduplication capabilities out of the backup software
(Symantec-Netbackup also acquired Puredisk and Emc-Legato also acquired
AVAMER) which is to say, it will be integrated in future.
 Moshav Bnei Zion P.O.Box 151, 60910 Israel Tel. 972-9-7444474 Fax. 972-97442444

Storage volumes

All customers spoke of the increase in storage volumes, noting that, especially in the
domain of health, there has been an unexpected increase because of Ultrasound MRI
PAX X-ray. Especially in these organizations therefore, spending on storage has been
constantly increasing. Another characteristic of organizations in the health domain is
that there is no erasure of information. Therefore the aim is to acquire MID cheaply.
Another aim is that of building up archives.

STKI comment – we estimate that due to the greater use of WEB technology that
includes multimedia, there will be a gradual rise in storage volume.

Policy concerning suppliers

• A customer spoke of the storage tender he executed in which they did

not purchase a machine, but rather purchased three types of gold
platinum SLA. In other words, one purchases volumes with a SLA up
to DRP level. Whereas the supplier has to upgrade at its own expense
in order to meet the SLA requirements of the agreement. Any exposure
of new disks to the customer must be undertaken by the supplier. In
other words, he is active on a daily basis in the facility. The
characteristics of the various types that gave rise to discrepancies of a
factor of 10 (!) between the storage with SLA, highest to lowest, of the
storage, are:

 Availability of storage services – 4 ninths

 10 per second
 How much data in DR
 RPO RTO
 Off-line backup

• Another customer that works in this manner (a supplier committed to

supply a SLA with various levels of storage) spoke of conflicts. The
customer makes installations himself but sometimes this adversely
affects performances and therefore the supplier sometimes asks the
customer to move things! In the case of this customer, there is a
penalty for an SLA!

• Another example of relations between supplier and customer – how

things are added in a machine without injury to the SLA that the
supplier commits to – the supplier will define LUNS but the customer
will use and implement masking.
 Moshav Bnei Zion P.O.Box 151, 60910 Israel Tel. 972-9-7444474 Fax. 972-97442444

STKI comment – in certain instances we have exact market prices. Also, please do not
forget to include, at the time of constructing the agreement, an agreed decrease in
prices from the net amount of the transaction. We have information on customers in
Israel who obtained 20% and more of the price decrease per annum, when signing the
transaction.

DRP

• All customers mentioned DRP on this or that level.

• A customer spoke of the fact that there is a synchronic DRP in a nearby

site. A more remote DRP is being planned.

• A customer spoke of a backup site in Raanana at HP. Material is

channelled via Rsynch and the backup can be uploaded to the site
within 4 to 5 hours.

STKI comment – a hot topic due to the Second Lebanese War – customers
realize that the entire country will be in danger of missiles falling.

MAIL

• A customer spoke of an MB100 mailbox size. One creates a PST for

the file server on an annual level.

• A customer mentioned KVS for the archive. With the installation of

MBI it took a year to install. Professional accompaniment is needed.

• A customer spoke of the fact that some users have a PST – but the
users are restricted as to disk area…

• A customer noted that they give the user MB200. There may also be
more. And also a free PST in the network with backup for the entire
PST.

• A customer said that in the archiving domain people are working

successfully with KVS. There are K5 archived mailboxes. This saves a
great deal of headache.

• A customer mentioned that KVS users (EA of Symantec) - are

satisfied. Also, the project came up quickly.

Document retention policy

 Moshav Bnei Zion P.O.Box 151, 60910 Israel Tel. 972-9-7444474 Fax. 972-97442444

• A customer implemented a process in which the object was to

determine what is being held and when. And the conclusion was that
there is no conclusion! The sub-organization is obliged to transfer part
of the material to the general organizational archive - and the general
organizational archive itself has not yet decided what they want. For
example – a draft invitation to tender – how long should it be left?
Luncheon with a supplier – how much time to leave?

STKI comment – in our opinion, this topic goes beyond the “infrastructures” domain,
and is actually a classic applications/ organization and methods topic.

Various perplexities

• Storage relocations – problematic. People are looking for

virtualization and examining IBM –SVC storage virtualization. There
is a problem of relocating storage from one place to another and among
different suppliers, and even when relocating with the same supplier.
This is a problem that needs to be solved.

• Operational issues – sometimes an application and a LUN are modified

and people forget to update, and then no backup is made.

• There is a problem with paying the supplier for software. Payment is

made for the entire machine even though only part of the machine is
used.

• Many internal disks are becoming vacant. What should be done with
the vacated disks? Should they be backed up? Is there an HSM that
know how to do such things?

• Another problem is that performances decline even before the machine

is full.

• Encoding of the cassettes. This matter worries them. Lto4 provides

support but there is no keys management. A complementary
environment must be purchased.

• People want VMWARE on ESX. The question is how it is to be backed

up.

• A customer noted that they are unable to decide about timesten.