Examples of Business Applications
Nowadays we can count on, just about, all IT environments having an existing (or planning) a deployment of the following business applications:
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
- SCM (Supply Chain Management)
- CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
- Messaging (Domino/Lotus Notes, MS Exchange, etc.)
- RDBMS (Informix, DB2, Oracle, Sybase, MS SQL, etc.)
- CAD/CAE (Computer Aided Design / Computer Aided Engineering)
There are numerous other applications which fall under this category such as scientific applications, mathematical applications, and other specialized functionality applications.
Generally, another common factor is they are "open file" data systems meaning that multiple (internal) processes have read/write access to the open file. (The opposite of this scenario is known as a flat file). Since many internal processes have R/W access to one (or many) data file(s), it is of paramount importance that all data I/O be handled in the fastest means possible.
The nature of these applications makes them perfect for a client-server model which in simple terms means the "client" simply enters (data input) data which then goes to the "server" application residing on the server.
The server application always requires a very well tuned disk-subsystem in order to be able to efficiently provide the data requested by the server application to be processed and then delivered to the requesting client.
A well tuned disk-subsystem (for business applications) is one which will:
- Be block level storage (more efficient management and high performance).
- Provide a consistent data throughput which usually matches the application’s expected rates – any less will inhibit application time-outs and/or hang client (and sometimes server) applications.
- Be able to scale dynamically on the fly without any downtime.
- Be able to offer a level of redundancy should a component fail such as the power supplies, fan modules, or storage processors (RAID Controllers)
What to look for In a Storage Solution
When considering a storage solution one should look for the following aspects:
Redundancy of components (i.e. power supplies, fan modules, I/O modules, RAID Controllers, hard disks, etc) – the idea is to avoid down time due to mechanical or system failure.
Provide optimal performance for the server application environment and this can be further sub-categorized into the following:
- Fast disks and high IOPS (i.e. using SAS (Serial-Attached-SCSI) hard disks).
- Using drive technologies which can be integrated into a shared environments such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI. With any of these technologies one has the opportunity to share the storage on a network.
Potential Solutions
Consider the following EMD Storage solutions:
SecurStor Astra ES DAS
Equallogic PS Series iSCSI storage
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