Transform Microsoft Application Environment With EMC Information Infrastructure

Editor's Notes

• #4: Before we go I also want to give you two places to go. One is our EMC Proven program – the goal here is to show you how and why to deploy your applications in the ways we’ve recommended in this presentation. You can find out more information about these programs at: www.emc.com/exchangewww.emc.com/sharepointwww.emc.com/sql
• #5: Additional Microsoft-related papers are available at these links.
• #6: After you virtualize servers, you can drastically reduce the number of servers and increase utilization.You can also radically DECREASE power and cooling costs and reduce the overall foot-print and rack space required for the environment (in places like NYC with high datacenter rents this is a big deal). You can also provision servers and applications faster. Before you may have had to wait 1-3 weeks to order and receive a new server for an application. With virtualization, you can create a new virtual machine in minutes. Another big reason our customers are virtualizing is because they can improve high availability and protection. They can protect servers and roles with no built-in availability features and create a consistent way to replicate data offsite.(CLICK)You can ensure your applications leverage virtualized pools of resources versus Islands of Direct Attached Storage and inefficient hardware.(CLICK)The end result? More speed, more agility. Improved service levels. Lower costs. Becoming experts in virtual server deployments will give your company an edge.
• #7: Many people have noticed that the IT industry is going through yet-another-rapid-phase of maturation and consolidation. The prominent feature is the emergence of end-to-end stacks from major vendors. This has been described as 'verticalization' -- vertically integrated technology/solution/services/cloud models -- largely end-to-end. In other words, this view advocates that each application should be managed from the application and drive the choice in servers, storage, and networks.When it comes to Microsoft applications – this is very true:- The Exchange team wants to run on direct-attached-storage. - The SharePoint farm has grown into an important repository for your company, yet sometimes it’s being stored and protected like it’s a collection of MP3’s.The other approach isVirtualization. The virtualization approach encapsulates and abstracts just about each and every mainstream upper-level stack that's being proposed these days. This shifts the argument in an interesting way. Now instead of letting each application and database team run their own separate islands, perhaps it’s time to consider a virtualized stack that allows best of breed infrastructure to work together to provide you with the best framework for your IT environment – both for today and into the future.At EMC, we’ve made our strategy clear. We want to be the best choice for heavily virtualized environments – what some folks are called Private Clouds.
• #8: server virtualization has had a profound impact on how we now look at storage..In the “good old days” we would create a RAID group and then carve out LUNs statically… what a pain…With VMWare that all changed! <CLICK>VMWare pools server resources and enables dynamic provisioning of compute power and applications according to shifting business needs. To stay relevant, storage had to embrace the same paradigm. Just like vMotion and DRS allows you to move things around on the server side [ audience poll -- anyone using Vmotion or DRS?] , we saw the need to move data dynamically according to its business activity. Not only did such data movement make sense, it also had to be fully automated and self managing.
• #20: We’ve discussed the SharePoint disaster recovery capabilities with NetWorker. Now, let’s focus on granular-, object-, or item-level operational recovery and how this is accomplished. In versions prior to NetWorker Module for Microsoft Applications 2.3, EMC had a solution for performing granular backups and granular recoveries, but found that this option did not provide the performance and scalability required by a typical NetWorker customer with relatively large—or even massive—SharePoint environments. With NetWorker Module for Microsoft Applications 2.3—for granular protection of SharePoint, EMC has improved its solution for granular recovery by partnering with Kroll Ontrack, the provider of a software product called Ontrack PowerControls, which is available for resale by EMC Sales and channel partners through the EMC Select program.Ontrack PowerControls uses NetWorker SharePoint backups—those highlighted in the previous slide—for granular item-level recoveries. Step one is to perform a content database recovery to the location of your choice. Step two is to use PowerControls to extract the required item-level data.You can recover SharePoint web applications, site collections, sites, lists, libraries, and so on—all the things that are a part of the SharePoint logical structure and content. When you use PowerControls to restore, it will restore with full fidelity, meaning you get back all of the metadata, security settings, details about authors, proper timestamps, and so on—things that in other market solutions can sometimes be lost during backup and recovery.With this solution, versioning within SharePoint items, as well as conditionssuch as checkout status and approval status, will all be retained and recovered properly. And you have the option of restoring all versions or only specific versions if you wish.To find data to restore in such large environments, PowerControls enables search by a number of criteria so data can be found quickly and restored. And with this solution, restore is as easy as dragging and dropping items you need back into your target location, which can be the original location, a production server, another SharePoint server, or even a file system location. There is quite a bit of flexibility possible through this third-party solution.
• #27: In the same reference architecture described, FAST Cache was utilized.Enabling Fast Cache on system and search databases (Crawl, Property and tempdb) improved Search and Index performance significantly.Crawl operations were almost doubled User search response time improved by 27%Maximum user capacity was increased by 10%While FAST Cache benefits the entire farm performance , it’s more effective on the SharePoint Search related LUNs as we already identified those as I/O hungry.
• #28: We’ll start by focusing our attention on the issue of application backup and recovery. For most companies, software applications are at the core of running the business. We communicate with customers and partners through email. We sell goods and services through e-commerce and track sales orders through applications backed by databases. In most customer-related processes, a software application is relied upon to complete these business tasks; therefore, companies invest significantly in technologies that ensure data and applications are highly available and protected to ensure recovery whenever needed.When software applications are relied upon 24x7, customers have little tolerance for shutdowns or slowing to allow for a backup. Further, in the event of any outage, it is imperative to be able to recover data back to a point as close to the time of the problem as possible. From a data protection perspective, frequent, consistent recovery points that allow for quick recovery with minimal data loss is key. Any recovery should provide a fast resumption of business. Restoring backup data from a tape that is 12 hours old—or more—no longer meets the service levels required by most customers. With traditional backup, customers are falling short when challenged to meet restore service level agreements, especially given existing infrastructures and exponential data growth. This drives demand for more effective ways of capturing recovery points and executing backups.
• #38: Here is a look at our DLP Suite. We start with the Enterprise Manager, which is the main user interface to the product, and also acts as that policy administration point we discussed. Here is where you pull in all your existing Active Directory group and roles, so you maintain consistent ACLs. This is where your security drivers live. This is where you pre-determine what the workflow will be, who gets notified, etc. This is where you tell the system what type of data you’re looking for, and what to do when it finds it. This is where reporting happens, and you can have reports scheduled and emailed, or use the system as you security dashboard.The EM controls the three main components of the system: DLP Endpoint, for data in use on laptops and desktops; DLP Network, for monitoring the key protocols that move sensitive data in and out of my network; and DLP Datacenter, which focuses on data at rest.These components can remediate in a variety of ways. For example, on the Endpoint, you can control printing, or saving a document “As” to trick the system, or putting data onto a USB device….unless it’s the company’s certified SanDisk model 123 device. You can be very granular. On the Network, you can have users justify why they're sending sensitive data. You can block the transmission, or you can re-route it to an email encryption product. You can allow and notify someone's manager. We can even simply allow and audit. And on the Datacenter, we allow for quarantining, moving to secure areas, setting ACLs on located content, deleting, etc. A whole host of options are allowed on the components.
• #39: Note to Presenter: View in Slide Show mode for animation. The VNXe series was specifically designed to integrate with your server and application environments. The wizards for provisioning new storage do it in the context of the application, rather than as just generic capacity. There’s no need to be a RAID expert. Simply let the wizard be your guide. Gain instant expertise and let the system do the hard work.For example, the Microsoft Exchange wizard asks you for your Exchange version, how many mailboxes are needed, and what size, and then automatically creates the storage volumes needed for the data and log files. The wizards take the guesswork out provisioning storage and embodies years of EMC experience and best practices. If you are creating volumes using iSCSI, or file shares for CIFS or NFS, the appropriate wizard will create the storage, set up appropriate access, and enable snapshots and even external replication, all in less than 10 clicks. Simply confirm your selections or accept the defaults, and it is all done for you. With the VNXe series, storage is now easier than ever.
• #40: Note to Presenter: View in Slide Show mode for animation. The Unisphere user interface for VNXe series is clean and intuitive.The Dashboard view provides a snapshot of system resource use and open alerts, as well as direct access to essential storage and system task options.Sliding the cursor over any of the tabs at the top of the screen activates a pop-up of related activities and information drill-down options.
• #47: How long it takes to provision a new share point web app?How many panes of glass we must move between to achieve our goal?Don’t you want to make this simpler? Let’s discuss how ESI can help