Friday, October 17, 2008
"A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty" - Sir Winston Churchill
Hi Folks!
In challenging times like what we are currently experiencing, I find words like these inspiring. As many businesses all over the world, Overland is facing some challenges. We are a public company and thus we respect our obligations to the SEC and the Federal Government. We must follow the guidelines that allow us to be a public company. Though some of the news seems less than positive, it’s not the entire playbook, so to speak. We have had many other accomplishments that are very exciting.
To emphasize the positive momentum that has been gathering at Overland and continues to accumulate, I start with the optimistic team here. We have the unique ability to see the opportunity in every difficulty and adding in other dedicated team players, like our partners and customers, we truly make a formidable group. Our passion and dedication has created many great opportunities for success. We recently acquired an equitable brand in Snap Server and, shortly thereafter, launched the Snap Server 620 which has been well received by customers and industry analysts! We have inked a strategic alliance deal with Mobotix to help us make our foray into the Video Surveillance market that is growing at a rapid pace, and we offer products that are an ideal fit for this market. We are not resting easy but are working on other enhancements to our disk-based REO product line and our tape-based NEO product line that we will share with the IT community the world over, in the months to come. As we continue to innovate and bring better products and solutions to the market, supporting our "End-to-End Data Protection" vision, we will always be the one company that puts our partners and customers first. The fact is, we have come up with the right strategy, have better product offerings and give the best price performance solutions in the industry. I dare say--we have a winning team with a successful game plan.
Here at Overland, we tend to think of the cup as half full. The passion of our team, including our partners and customers, is this company’s greatest asset and keeps me at my most optimistic. At the start of the World Series here in the US, I liken our positive focus to keeping our eye on the ball. If we continue to do that, I’m convinced we’ll hit it out of the park every time. (For those in commonwealth countries it is like hitting "sixes" in the game of cricket).
Cheers!
Ravi Pendekanti
Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing
Friday, July 18, 2008
Server virtualization is, quite possibly, the most talked about technology throughout the entire IT industry, as an innovative technology that, when implemented correctly, can resolve a great deal of IT business needs AND help organizations save a ton of money. Interestingly enough, this may be new to open systems but first began probably before you could even spell “IT!”
That said, before you get too carried away with broadcasting your distinctive knowledge of an “up-and-coming” technology, make sure you’ve done your research (and your ego is in check).
Server virtualization first began on mainframes more than 40 years ago, initially referred to as “Time Sharing.” It was later implemented by IBM as Virtual Machine/Conversational Monitoring System (VM/CMS) and more commonly called “logical partitioning” (LPAR). Take a peek at Advanced Dynamic Logical Partitioning at IBM.com, parse through the details and you’ll find that the common practices and benefits of LPAR can be matched with what you have probably already read from the common practices and benefits of server virtualization from the likes of VMware, Virtual Iron and Hyper-V.
Open system adoption of 40-year-old mainframe technology isn’t a bad thing at all. Remember almost 20 years ago when server/host clustering was introduced to open systems? This same concept, which exposes multiple servers as single instances for greater performance, load balancing and high availability, already had been implemented on mainframes years before.
On a side note: Not only does “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” relate to IT, mainframes and virtual servers, Proctor and Gamble is believed to produce 6 different kinds of soap, all of which are created from a single formula with dissimilar scents applied. Any guesses as to what the next mainframe technology (formula) will be adopted for open systems?
--Kevin C. Wise
Sr. Product Manager
Monday, June 30, 2008
Folks, you asked and we delivered! I am excited to share with you the news of our Snap Server acquisition from Adaptec. The addition of the Snap Server product line is a direct result of our commitment to address your emerging need for NAS and replication solutions. We are thrilled to add one of the most recognized brand names in the NAS market to our already robust portfolio of disk, tape, and SAN appliances. Snap Server is the worldwide volume leader in NAS solutions and extends our end-to-end data protection solutions portfolio, to make purchasing Overland products easier and more streamlined for you.
If you have any questions, below I have a link to our FAQs for your reference, as well as a link to my email address if you wish to contact me directly. Finally, I reiterate my commitment to continue providing you with regular updates about Overland Storage and our comprehensive data protection solutions.
Snap Server FAQ's
--
Ravi Pendekanti
Vice President of Worldwide Marketing
ravi@overlandstorage.com
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Thanks to data deduplication, it is absolutely possible to achieve a 20:1 deduplication ratio and store virtually 200 TBs of data in 10 TBs of disk space. But it is important to understand how you get there, because the impact of deduplication can be easily misconstrued.
One of my responsibilities is to train new salespeople and our partners on the REO Virtual Tape Library product line. Many times, someone I’ve been training has done a quick calculation of the virtual space available in our deduplication Virtual Tape Library (11.25 TB @ 20:1 = 200+ TBs!) and leapt to the conclusion that the product will be ideal for large data center implementations where users are backing up 30 TBs of data. Incorrect!
Data deduplication is not a magic compression algorithm that somehow can take 200 TBs of data and compress it to 10 TBs. In order for data deduplication to be effective at delivering significant ratios (like 20:1), it relies on seeing the same data over and over–like in a backup scenario. A deduplication appliance may need to see 12 full backups or more before it is possible to achieve the desired 20:1 deduplication ratio.
So, yes you can fit 200 TBs of backup data in a 10 TB bag, but to do so you must stuff it in the bag 10 TBs or so at a time.
--
Jeff Graham
Senior Product Manager
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
St. Patrick’s Day is no longer the only occasion for going green. When it comes to addressing your data storage requirements these days, you’ll want to go as green as possible. After all, everyone is thinking eco-friendly, from hybrid cars to canvas grocery bags while recycling wherever and whenever possible. This same kind of responsibility to our planet has more and more companies demanding sustainable data storage solutions from their vendors and partners.
The reasoning and results are undeniable; sustainable data storage helps companies’ better meet demands for business continuity and compliance. Further, relying on energy-efficient hardware is not only eco-friendly but budget friendly also. As the price of fuel soars, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that from 2000 to 2006, the compounded average growth rate of electricity use from electronic data storage increased 20 percent—outpacing site infrastructure and networking equipment. According to the Uptime Institute, the yearly cost to power one server will rise from $95 in 2006 to $1,445 by 2012.
With typical data storage increasing 60 percent a year, no company can afford to be without an energy-efficient data storage strategy. So where to begin? Here are a few tips:
• Look for vendors and partners that use only the latest in energy-efficient technologies, such as data deduplication and compression.
• Internally implement green strategies, which may include data consolidation or moving to networked or virtualized storage.
• When appropriate, purchase equipment containing energy-efficient components, such as high capacity disk drives (e.g., SATA) that will conserve data storage and electricity usage.
Products from Overland Storage, such as our REO 9500D deduplicating VTL appliance and REO models with hardware compression take full advantage of eco-friendly features that increase disk capacity while using less power and producing less heat. This will translate to noticeable energy savings. These appliances also are RoHS compliant and don’t contain heavy metals, which increases storage efficiency and optimizes power consumption.
In particular, Overland’s REO 9500D can help any data center go green with increased retention of backup data on disk. Utilizing highly-efficient data deduplication software, the REO 9500D can dramatically increase storage capacity while reducing data volumes. The REO 9500D also can be configured as multiple VTLs, allowing fast and efficient backup to disk.
Additionally, Overland’s non-deduplicating VTLs include Dynamic Virtual Tape, basically thin provisioning for virtual tape, to maximize the utilization of available disk space. Any unused VTL space can be used for nearline storage.
Besides ensuring your data center gets greener, REO VTLs arrive ready to integrate without hassle. There’s no software to install, they are simply configured with the preferred VTL set-up with the easy-to-use configuration wizard. These eco-friendly, energy-efficient appliances are compatible with all major backup software and require no modifications to hosts or backup servers. So there’s no need to waste any time—or precious energy. Go green today!
___
Jeff Graham
Senior Product Manager
Friday, April 18, 2008
It’s pretty much a given that every organization must not only backup its data but do it with frequency—and let’s not forget—do it well. With that said, there is the much harder task of making that statement a confident reality. If impetus is needed, there’s a lot at stake: think about job security, your company’s viability and, of course, getting a good night’s sleep.
First off, brace yourself with the proper point of view. Because the act of backup should be looked at as much more than just having your vital data duplicated on disk and/or tape in case there’s an emergency. Start with the goal of doing all you can to ensure your backup data is called into duty as few times as possible.
Fortunately, this is now easier as more and more IT departments are embracing disk-based appliances that make possible storing weeks—if not months—of data. Disk also makes IT staffers look like superstars because most restores are instantaneous. But how do you know much backup disk is needed? Begin with a capacity planning exercise.
Determine exactly what data gets backed up. How much data are you backing up now? By what percentage do you expect the data to grow? If the rate of your growth is unclear, use IDC’s baseline that typical storage grows by 60 percent per year. What is your company’s retention policy? For instance, do you need to keep on hand one month of weekly fulls, one year of monthly fulls, three years of quarterly fulls, seven years of annual fulls? What does your data look like? While compression technology has been a good friend to the backup process, if you’re working with lots of video and audio, don’t count on a 2:1 ratio because those files already are compressed. Public companies must take into consideration all Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.
The good news is embracing the proper amount of disk-based backup permits taking better advantage of incremental backups, which saves disk space over full backups. With today’s technology, you can schedule a full backup every Friday with daily incrementals and feel pretty good about getting that good night’s sleep. You can make better use of your storage space by performing more incrementals and fewer fulls, which results in taking up less storage space. But this isn’t always necessary as disk-based offerings, such as Overland’s REO SERIES of disk-based backup and recovery appliances scale extraordinarily and economically.
If it’s of any consolation, no tiered data protection strategy can unequivocally guarantee data will never be lost. But remember, even baseball’s best hitters are out more than six times out of 10. With a well-planned backup strategy, IT departments will far exceed this average and reach all-star status in the data protection league.
____
Jeff Graham
Senior Product Manager
Friday, March 28, 2008
There has been a lot interest lately in data replication. Unfortunately, the flurry of words has caused quite a storm of confusion. And at the eye of the storm? Synchronous or asynchronous replication? That is the question.
For anyone considering synchronous data replication, the most important factor to understand is that this process can require a tremendous amount of bandwidth, depending on the amount of data involved. This is because every write to the disk subsystem is replicated immediately.
Aside from the beaucoup bandwidth needed, the process can be costly. Even if your synchronous replication is local, it still requires high-performance disks and fast local network connections because the process is only as fast as its slowest element. In addition, all hardware and networks needed in replication must be available always. Mirroring of data is the same in basic principle except it can be achieved within the same device or with two devices.
Given the extraordinary bandwidth and cost involved, why would anyone want synchronous replication? In one word: redundancy. In case you were to lose one system, business can keep on going uninterrupted. It’s the same reason businesses favor the security of clustered servers. If you have mission-critical databases and you can afford it, synchronous replication delivers reassuring peace of mind.
In contrast, asynchronous replication is much more common and affordable. Async basically makes the most sense for backing up data as part of a disaster recovery application. It provides outstanding fault tolerance for network storage by capturing changes to data at the byte level. The largest benefit of asynchronous data replication is if there’s an outage, replication can continue and all data in the replication system is secure.
What factors are driving the requirements for asynchronous replication? A primary reason is the growing number of organizations with multiple sites that want to consolidate their backups and/or achieve heightened disaster recovery capabilities.
Asynchronous replication has evolved as DR planning has become a front-and-center issue. Thanks to some more recent technologies, such as bandwidth optimization and data deduplication, async replication now is more affordable and accessible than ever. In particular, bandwidth optimization can ensure you have high-capacity connections to transmit replicated data while data deduplication can lower the time and cost of backing up data to disk.
So if you’re looking for ways to bolster your current disaster recovery plan, consider asynchronous replication as a way to ensure that all your sites—not just your data center—have the highest levels of protection possible.
___
Jeff Graham
Senior Product Manager
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Early in the days of my career as an IT administrator and later as an IT engineer, careful consideration was always taken when considering the power consumption requirements of servers, storage arrays, uninterruptable power supplies, etc – anything and everything that went into a lab – and yes, even the stereo that helped the late nights and longer weekends seem not so bad.
Careful consideration was taken, at least in my case, to make sure that I had the correct electrical outlets available and so to avoid the cursing building maintenance supervisor when I blew a fuse.
Over the past few years, the motivation for such careful consideration has shifted quite a bit. Not only is there concern for the correct electrical outlets and minimizing the risk of unruly encounters with the building supervisor, the cliché requirement to “do more with less” has now stretched to the data center energy bill.
Available today, there is a great deal of technologies and best practices that can help us “propeller heads” address these new power utilization limitations. Such technologies include server consolidation, server virtualization and idle disk-drive spin-down.
A very common practice in terms of tiered storage, but lesser known best practice to reduce power consumption, is to balance disk-based power efficiency with capacity and performance.
Without doubt, SAS drives are quickly consuming the market for high performance disk drives over traditional fibre channel disk drives and legacy SCSI disk drives.
For low cost, high capacity disk, SATA drives have already become the staple in almost every IT environment ranging from the Fortune 100 data center in NYC to the 10-person plumbing business in rural Iowa.
SATA cannot obtain the same random I/O performance requirements that SAS drives can address. However, when taking into consideration the wattage per terabyte of capacity, there is no question that SATA reigns supreme.
The table below shows the facts from www.seagate.com regarding their SAS and SATA drive power utilization per drive:
| Model # |
Drive Type |
Drive Capacity |
Typical Power Utilization (W) |
Average (W) per Terabyte |
| ST3750330NS |
SATA-II |
750 GB |
11.6 |
0.015 |
| ST3146855SS |
SAS |
146 GB |
14.9 |
0.102 |
Although the difference may seem small when comparing one drive to another, picture the wattage required for 100 terabytes of each:
· 100 TB SATA requires 1.5W
· 100 TB SAS requires 10W
Taking this a step further, “best of breed” storage arrays are now being architected to support both SAS and SATA drives intermixed within a single enclosure! This awards storage administrators the ability to provide both SAS and SATA to address performance and capacity requirements without having to purchase additional arrays, which ultimately have additional power requirements of their own.
Overland Storage has already taken this advantage into account and launched ULTAMUS RAID 1200 in February of 2007.
Now in its second generation, ULTAMUS RAID 1200 provides users with the ability to intermix both high performance SAS with high capacity SATA to address a broad range of application requirements within a single chassis and while also addressing the ongoing need to be conscious of the energy bill.
If only I had this capability available to me years ago… I could have avoided the explicit language of Don, the maintenance man, and could have (quite possibly) justified squeezing a more quality stereo system into my capital budget.
____
Kevin C. Wise | Senior Product Manager
Friday, February 22, 2008
The rate at which data is growing today is causing heads to spin faster than a whirring disk drive. It can be overwhelming and part of the feeling is brought on by the fact many backup administrators have been caught by surprise at what’s happening.
While tape has long been known tape as the capacity leader—with the best price per TB—it no longer can solve a panacea of problems caused by escalating data growth and ever-increasing backup and recovery requirements.
In the early 1990s, mid-range tape storage was revolutionized when it became possible to put 5 GBs on one tape. At the time, conventional thinking was that it would take three years to fill this expanded capacity. Fast forward to the New Millennium. Now your storage level has reached 5 TBs, and while tape technology has continued to do its part in capacity growth, the speed needed for the lightning-fast way we do business today obviously is missing, causing backup windows to look like a picture window with a very bad view.
There are steps for changing the size and view of your backup window. Start by figuring out exactly how much data truly needs protection. Then evaluate the criticality to establish the value of this data. Calculate the SLAs and data retention requirements that must be achieved and then start benchmarking them vs. the current configuration. Determine these factors against your desired Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs), Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Granularity Objectives (RGOs).
Introducing a disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) strategy will enable a faster backup method that will make it possible to meet SLAs. Overland’s REO SERIES disk-based appliances are designed purposefully to solve backup window woes. Once the suitable backup times are achieved, advancements such as data deduplication helps reduce storage of repetitious data while improving the amount of data that can be kept on disk for rapid restores.
With SLAs under control, it’s much easier to determine data protection growth levels for the next three years. If this seems daunting, apply IDC’s standard that data is growing at 60 percent a year. So if there’s 20 TBs of production data today, plan for at least 50 TBs in three years. A good rule of thumb in backups is to keep 10 times your primary disk capacity on-hand for growth, but by using compression and data deduplication the tables tip in your favor. According to Enterprise Strategy Group, a 20-to-1 data reduction ratio is achievable.
Today, one technology is not enough to ensure effective data protection. But have no fears, tape is not going away, it’s just transforming from a first line of storage to a second or third. A summer 2007 study by Aberdeen Group revealed 75 percent of respondents said they will continue to use tape for some form of backup. So matching NEO SERIES or ARCvault tape automation with Overland’s ULTAMUS RAID nearline storage and REO disk-based backup and recovery provides the building blocks necessary for a solid tiered data protection solution that provides years in peace of mind.
___
Peri Grover
Director, Product Development
Saturday, February 16, 2008
You can pound a nail into a wall with just about anything (last time I resorted to using the handle of a screwdriver), but for the best results I suggest using a hammer. This rule also can be applied to your corporate data protection strategy.
No organization should safeguard all its data with just one tool. While perhaps it can be done (refer to screwdriver-and-nail example), it just isn’t efficient or sufficient for achieving the best results. That’s why it’s good to have a “hammer” and “screwdriver” in your corporate tool kit; in this case, I’m talking about disk and tape technology. Using the proper tools for the job, disk is the answer for business-critical data while the needs of less critical data are perfect for tape.
Relying on one tool to meet all tiers of your data protection needs exposes you to the unnecessary risk of data or revenue loss as well as potential regulatory incompliance. While choosing the most appropriate tool ensures the most satisfactory user experience, using your tools in unison creates a tiered data protection strategy that will deliver the most appropriate levels of data protection according to its value to the organization.
Following along on this theme, it’s important to realize that a one-size tool doesn’t fit all applications. That’s why Overland’s NEO SERIES and ARCvault tape automation products as well as REO SERIES disk-based backup and recovery appliances are offered in a variety of sizes and capabilities—so they can be mixed and matched to best suit specific applications along the data protection continuum.
Beware of any vendor that would tell you otherwise. The truth will come out by looking into their toolbox; (1) it probably contains a limited product line and (2) whatever their tool is, they’ll be sure to tell you it’s the exact one you need to solve your problem (regardless of whether you’re trying to shrink your backup window or improve long-term data retention).
Any experienced IT person knows that isn’t true. Disk isn’t the answer to everything anymore than tape is. At Overland, we know this very well because we have lived it. While the company earned its spurs as a pioneer in tape technology, we added complementary disk-based offerings to meet a wide range of requirements, including disaster recovery, business continuity, regulatory compliance and e-discovery liabilities.
Our complete product portfolio enables us to solve your problem whatever it is, and accomplish it optimally. We do not try to force-fit problems into our solution; we do not hammer with a screwdriver, so to speak. We look at your environment, understand your challenges and then reach into our toolbox to provide a solution optimized specifically for your business and budget.
___
Peri Grover
Director, Product Management