Tributary says “Look at the Use Case”

Consciously or unconsciously, and whether it be goods or services, we all evaluate use cases when we make a product purchasing decision. Large or small, this happens all the time, and guides us into making (for the most part) sensible decisions. I’m buying a jar of spaghetti sauce. Use case- I’m going to have spaghetti for dinner. I’m buying a new truck. Use case- I need to move large items, I require greater fuel efficiency than my existing truck provides (cost reduction); I require enhanced reliability (more uptime), etc. Simple stuff, really…….

Sometimes though, the use case may be flawed, especially in more complex purchases. Here’s an example: the use case for a lawn mower is that I need to mow my grass evenly, efficiently, and at low cost with a long product service life. Most, but not all, of us assume that a use case for a lawn mower would not include hedge clipping or tree trimming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHYgUtGM06E

So defining a use case properly does seem to be an important component of purchasing decisions.

Use Cases for Tributary Systems Storage Director and Cloud Object Storage

Let’s take a look at three typical Use Cases where Storage Director, paired with Cloud Object Storages, enhances backup and restore operations for NonStop:

Backup/restore with proprietary dedup storage

• PROBLEM: Current backup infrastructure is not cost effective, doesn’t scale efficiently, slow restores due to data re-hydration, expensive due to proprietary hardware

• SOLUTION: Storage Director with Cloud Object Storage (COS) – reduces costs by reducing required disk space, eliminates re-hydration issue during restore because data is never deduped, only compressed with “incrementals forever” methodology from the BMA. Storage Director/COS solution uses off-the-shelf non-proprietary hardware

• BENEFITS: In an average 3 site configuration, the Storage Director/COS solution uses up to 65% less disk space than the typical dedup solution. In one or two site configurations, data is reduced through incremental backups and hardware enabled compression. Performance is enhanced because data is neither manipulated on the front end nor re-hydrated during a restore

Backup to Tape

• PROBLEM: Handling and storage of large numbers of tape cartridges is inefficient.

• SOLUTION: Storage Director with COS is easy to install, easy to use and a policy based solution that emulates tape. Backup applications do not need to be modified, Storage Director interfaces with all major BMAs in use today.

• BENEFITS: Eliminate inefficient tape handling by IT staff, eliminates need to manually transport tape cartridges offsite for secure storage, removes concern for data degradation on very old tape, data restores are much faster because cartridges don’t have to be located and physically mounted

Public Cloud Backup

• PROBLEM: Public Cloud providers don’t offer users control or visibility of their data and charge for puts and gets with data security concerns

• SOLUTION: Storage Director with COS – Allows use of on-premise private cloud with fixed costs

• BENEFITS: On-premise private cloud eliminates security concerns associated with public cloud and variable costs associated with puts and gets. On-premise SD and COS offers lower and fixed cost for backups. Finally, read and write performance for backups are significantly improved when compared to a public cloud

Storage Director provides a simple, cost effective, secure and high performance interface to both Public and/or Private (on-premise) Clouds for NonStop archiving and backup operations. Not only is Tributary Systems is a valued HPE partner, but also partners with both IBM and Hitachi. Storage Director is designed to interface with both IBM’s Cloud Object Storage and Hitachi’s HCP (Hitachi Content Platform). This versatility eliminates the need for server specific on-premise backup storage infrastructure, be it disk or tape. Storage Director’s extreme backup and restore (Read and Write) performance allows backup data to be written to Public Cloud object storage solutions such as AWS, Google, Azure, IBM COS and Hitachi HCP, with extreme speeds. In fact, per node measured performance on Storage Director keeps going up and up.  If the host can push it, Storage Director can now ingest data at 20TB/hour per node and restore at 17TB/hour per node. For customers with backup window time constraints, performance like this will prove invaluable.

If required, Storage Director, when properly configured, has the ability to internally or externally cache backups on-premise and then push the data to a public or private cloud via customer defined policies. Caching provides for immediately accessible backups, and reduces or eliminates ingress and egress fees. Storage Director is now certified compatible with Hitachi G350, G600 and G950 and IBM Storwize V5000, V7000 and HPE P2000 arrays. Internal cache is fully configurable per customer requirements, and is shipped from Tributary Systems fully integrated and tested.

Storage Director is currently in production in datacenter environments at four of the 20 largest (Fortune 20) corporations in the US, and for 10 years or more. Multiple NonStop customers currently have Storage Director in production, with more installations in process.  References are available.

As always, if you’d like additional information on, or references for, Storage Director, visit www.tributary.com, or contact our Sales Director, Matt Allen, at 817-786-3066 (office) or 713-492-7434 (cell). Matt can also be reached at mallen@tributary.com

Storage Director allows NonStop professionals to “augment what they have and use it in creative new ways!”

www.tributary.com