EMC Continuous Availability Advisory Services Based on VPLEX

EMC Corporation announced Continuous Availability Advisory Services, an assessment, cost/benefit analysis, and roadmap development offering delivered by EMC Global Services in combination with EMC VPLEX virtual storage which enables an always-on-and-available IT infrastructure with reduced CAPEX and OPEX.

As demonstrated in certain customer engagements conducted by EMC, Continuous Availability Advisory Services have been shown to enable organizations to reduce server count by up to 40% by combining existing production, HA, and DR compute platforms into a single solution.

Delivered by EMC Global Services, the services’ suite of offerings include: assessing the readiness of applications and existing infrastructure, and developing an architectural design, roadmap and cost benefit analysis for the technical deployment and transition.

Continuous Availability Advisory Services provides organizations with a services methodology that is based on VPLEX virtual storage. Previously, a continuous availability environment was either limited to be within a data center, or required complex systems integration that made it expensive to build and maintain. VPLEX provides the foundation for continuous availability by presenting read/writable virtual volumes in two geographically separated data centers. It enables users to build ‘stretched data centers,’ permitting them to process data collaboratively, using server clustering technologies over distance, and to take a powerful new approach to BC design and execution. However, solutions built with VPLEX and clustering technologies can help organizations maximize information trust and availability.

EMC Global Services can help organizations by:

• Providing the organization with an assessment of the current environment to enable a change of focus from the recovery time and recovery point objectives, forging a path to improved availability.
• Enabling the organization to reduce risk associated with BC outages and restarts.
• Providing the organization with the architectural design and roadmap information to help enable the organization to deliver ‘Always-On, and Always-Available access’ to users

Organizations are increasingly reliant on uninterrupted active/active access to data and applications. Additionally, the rapid growth of big data and globalization, increasing regulatory pressures, more frequent planned outages, and the impact of natural disasters have reinforced the need for management to continue operations through any type of disruption. In response, many IT service organizations have created an expensive labyrinth of different solutions and techniques to eliminate single points of failure in their data centers.

A recent study (How Organizations Are Improving Business Resiliency with Continuous IT Availability, a Technology Adoption Profile study commissioned by EMC and conducted by Forrester Consulting) found that the increased reliance on technology is the number one factor driving increased risk in business. Organizations require new IT delivery models, such as continuous availability that provide greater control and visibility of data. This establishes a foundation of trust that IT infrastructure will perform the way it should even in the event of business disruptions that may occur.

Keith Mallonee, SVP, McKesson IT, said: "We recently examined a continuous availability strategy for one of our major business units. What we learned is that continuous availability is not only architecturally feasible, leveraging off-the-shelf products, it is achievable at significant savings. EMC practitioners delivered far more than we expected, and the strategy is readily executable, enabling us to bring the business case to management quickly and efficiently."

Mike Koehler, SVP, Global Services, EMC, said: "Globalization, competition and the ever increasing reliance on IT systems has driven an evolution in business. CIOs and business leaders have an urgent need to improve availability to meet market and competitive demands for an ‘always-on-and-available’ IT infrastructure. Whether customers want to transition to continuous availability for all their applications and data, or take a journeyed approach, EMC designed this new service to help clients assess their current position, strengthen their infrastructure, take full advantage of their existing technology, and improve their overall availability posture."