Vision Critical Adopts Nimble Storage

Nimble Storage announced that Vision Critical, a provider of business-intelligence applications to industry giants such as Kodak, JetBlue, NASCAR, and Marriott Corporation, has achieved a 50% reduction in software build times by deploying a Nimble CS220 converged storage and backup array.

Vision Critical cites compression of primary storage, frequent data snapshots, and instant, zero-copy data cloning as the components in reducing build times while managing hundreds of code iterations and builds daily. Vision Critical adopted the Nimble array to help it keep pace with a 50-percent-per-year increase in its 15-terabyte data store.

Vision Critical serves multiple departmental groups, including its entire software development team and quality assurance labs, with a single Nimble CS220. The Nimble array, which delivers performance of over 20,000 IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second), has allowed the company to increase its number of simultaneous development and test jobs and to complete those jobs in less than half the time required by the company’s previous storage systems. Using real-time data compression and efficient data snapshots with the CS220 has saved Vision Critical more than 50 percent on primary-storage capacity, enabling the company to keep IT budgets in check by postponing capital expenditures for storage.

Continuous Data Availability
According to Diraj Goel, Director of Information Technology at Vision Critical, frequent snapshots allow the company to provide nearly continuous data availability to its developers. "I can take one snapshot a day, or 100 snapshots – it doesn’t matter," he said. "Storage for those snapshots will be virtually the same." With new code builds occurring as often as every 15 minutes, he adds, the risk of code loss or data corruption is virtually insignificant because developers can resume operations within 15 minutes by reverting to the most recent snapshot or to any stored snapshot. The Nimble CS220 provides storage of up to 90 days of snapshots.

Vision Critical developers have also benefited by using the Nimble CS220’s zero-copy cloning feature to create sets of VMware-based virtual machines needed in the creation of new software iterations. Zero-copy cloning enables developers to clone a range of software instances and bring them online quickly. Unlike storage systems in which cloning results in lengthy copy times, additional overhead, and significantly greater storage requirements, a clone created on the CS220 shares data with its parent volume, eliminating the need for additional storage capacity. Zero-copy clones created on the CS220 have saved the company over 80% on its test development storage capacity, said Goel.

Offsite Replication
The move to Nimble has also enabled Vision Critical to prepare for deploying offsite data replication with the Nimble CS220 serving as what Goel calls a ‘multi-utility storage appliance’ – primary storage for replicated sites or a disaster-recovery environment, in addition to its existing use as a platform for the company’s test-development environment. Performance profiles, an integral function of the Nimble array, allow development teams to optimize the performance of each storage volume according to its particular use, whether for Microsoft Exchange, VMware, or other applications, while establishing repeatable processes and reducing human error.

As a platform for disaster recovery, the Nimble CS220 has provided an additional measure of assurance for Vision Critical. "No matter how many times we try to stress the appliance to force a crash, it holds its own and performs," said Goel. "With that in mind, I can say that Nimble is in the perfect sweet spot for providing the storage that I need."

Flash-Based Architecture
Nimble Storage’s CS-Series is based on the company’s patent-pending architecture, Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout (CASL), which enables fast inline data compression, intelligent data optimization leveraging flash memory and high-capacity disk, instant optimized backups, and WAN-efficient replication – all in a single device. CASL allows organizations to reduce their capital expenditures for storage and backup by at least 60 percent, while eliminating the need for separate, disk-based backup.