Amnet Again Enlists DataCore SANsymphony-V and Veeam De-Dupe

DataCore Software
Corporation announced that longtime customer Amnet Technology Solutions
has deployed the latest version of its SANsymphony-V storage
hypervisor (version 8.1) to meet an increasing demand for offsite replication
and DR.

A cloud based IT and audio/video technology service provider (SP), Amnet
enlisted DataCore’s technology to build a scalable backup
and replication platform that rivals the speed of purpose-built backup systems
at a cost savings of 30 percent.

"We looked at a lot of
backup appliances and found they can be very expensive, particularly when you
get in the 100 terabyte range," explained Ed Walsh, director of
engineering at Amnet Technology Solutions. "DataCore’s SANsymphony-V can replicate remotely to any device. The
performance acceleration it offers shrinks backup times, allowing many more
jobs to be completed in a specific window. Furthermore, the cost savings –
compared to the purpose-built solutions we evaluated – is phenomenal."

The DataCore SANsymphony-V storage hypervisor enhances the value of
diverse storage resources by unifying advanced services, such as provisioning,
auto-tiering, replication and performance acceleration, through a common
storage virtualization layer. Foremost in Amnet’s recent deployment, SANsymphony-V
provided the ability to compress replication that supports a diverse set of
backend storage devices to
integrate direct disk backup and offsite replication across its entire cloud
computing grid for improved resilience against disaster.

Through a combination of deduplication technology from Veeam
Software, and the speed benefit of writing to a dedicated SANsymphony-V ‘backup’
node, Amnet’s new platform was able to achieve high performance
levels even with 2TB drives. Additionally, SANsymphony-V serves as a remote
site replication facility and can therefore accommodate the needs of large
enterprise and wholesale clients that sign up for Amnet’s DataCore as-a-service
offering; an option that also allows other cloud SP
clients to replicate their environments.

"I’ve never seen a
product as versatile as DataCore’s storage hypervisor," added Walsh.
"Performance acceleration gives us
more ‘bang’ for our storage buck. We get a disaster-proof backup and
replication system at a fraction of the cost. And, the ability to change SAN
storage vendors at any time gives us the future-proofing on tech investments we
need to support continued rapid growth."

Since 2009, Amnet has relied on DataCore’s storage virtualization
software to get the most from its VMware and EMC environments, and make the
move to cloud computing. From the outset, the software provided a 2X
performance boost to their storage arrays for optimum ROI. This initial platform
is based on VMware running on HP blades, with EMC, HP and
other storage systems managed by DataCore. All storage tiers are unified by
DataCore’s technology into a pool of virtual storage from which an IT staff can provision virtual disks of whatever size and performance
characteristics a customer’s applications require.

SANsymphony-V also features built-in synchronous mirroring,
providing the platform with HA by eliminating the SAN as a
single-point-of-failure. Because it handles real-time mirroring of I/Os between
a primary and secondary node, each can also serve in either capacity for
virtual disks, offering greater resilience. Failover is automatic and
non-disruptive; critical functionality that has endowed Amnet with a reputation
as a reliable provider of non-stop cloud computing.

In fact, in 2010 during a routine expansion of a storage system,
partial power was accidentally ‘knocked out’ by workers. This took down an
entire side of a core SAN rack. Yet, due to the redundant design afforded by
DataCore, the mirrored node and its backend SAN kicked
and all were re-synched automatically when power was restored. Customers never
noticed any interruption.

Such reliability, and ease of expansion, enabled Amnet to
transition their managed service business clients to its cloud platform. This
ushered in a new phase of growth for the company, allowing the SP to deliver
more powerful solutions at a fraction of the cost that
would have been required by traditional colocation and managed infrastructure.
Since, ‘colo’ clients have converted to full or hybrid clouds because it makes
business sense; storage and virtual machines can be rolled out within minutes.
Larger enterprises also discovered the benefits of Amnet’s platform; one asking
for a dedicated private cloud capable of meeting the needs of 3,000 users,
resulting from a seven company merger, a successful undertaking that
occurred practically overnight.

"Today, we support
thousands of users running within multiple private cloud computing grids across
the country. We are 100 percent virtualized, with multiple backend storage
models and varied vendor technology, all underpinned by DataCore’s technology.
And now, we’ve got a backup and replication platform that’ll allow us to
continue to grow, while maintaining the performance and reliability our
customers expect, built at a fraction of the cost of a purpose built system. This
has been a great partnership," concluded Walsh.