TOP FIVE REASONS WHY CUSTOMERS DEPLOY MICROSOFT SQL SERVER ON EMC UNIFIED STORAGE What if there was a complete storage solution that could help DBAs stop worrying about day-to-day disk performance and database protection? 1 TURBO-CHARGE YOUR DATABASE PERFORMANCE Storage teams and DBAs know that increasing the number of disk spindles will boost performance. They also know that it can lead to significant inefficiencies, including lower capacity utilization and higher power and cooling costs. EMC® FAST Cache solves the problem. By using Flash drives as an extended read-and-write array cache, FAST Cache increases IOPS and dramatically decreases database response times compared to higher cost, all-Fibre Channel (FC) configurations. In independently verified (Enterprise Strategy Group) performance tests, EMC FAST Cache doubled—and in some cases tripled—the performance of transactional database workloads. FAST Cache not only provides more IOPS from the same number of hard drives, but also conserves energy and rack space in the data center. Improve performance by 3x transactions per second (TPS) EMC FAST Cache Baseline 1322 TPS “EMC is the leading vendor supporting virtual server environments.”* *ENTERPRISE STRATEGY GROUP (ESG) DATA CENTER SPENDING INTENTIONS SURVEY SOLUTION OVERVIEW 4455 TPS 2 SAVE VALUABLE TIME AND MONEY WITH AUTOMATED TIERING DBAs look for database hot spots and configure storage tiers to eliminate them. Now, EMC makes the job easier. Automate storage tiering with EMC FAST VP Flash Flash High High Performance Performance High Capacity High Capacity EMC FAST VP (Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools) analyzes disk I/O patterns, automatically promotes sub-LUN hot spots to a higher-performing tier, and demotes cold data to lower-cost storage devices (such as high-capacity NL-SAS drives). Automated storage tiering efficiently matches the performance requirements to the disk tier that’s optimal for the workload. Since less than 20 percent of data is typically “hot,” FAST VP can completely change the performance, cost, and management equation. FAST VP capabilities enable an organization to confidently move from a static, monolithic configuration to a dynamic, tiered configuration of Flash, High Performance, and High Capacity drives. A heterogeneous drive strategy can reduce both acquisition and operational costs, while maintaining an equivalent or improved level of performance. FAST VP also dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to diagnose and fix Microsoft® SQL Server® bottlenecks. With FAST VP, DBAs can analyze the problem, design a new configuration, implement it, and manage it up to 80 percent faster than previously possible. Additionally, once FAST VP is configured, it will tune your disk workloads for the life of the array. Just set-it-and-forget-it. Eliminate manual performance tuning Without FAST VP With FAST VP Performance optimization is a manual, ongoing process Automated performance optimization Analyze 4 hours Analyze Automated Design 4 hours Design 1 hour Implement 4 hours Implement 2 hours Manage 4 hours Manage Automated Repeat as necessary 3 Set-it-and-forget-it BUILT-IN DATA PROTECTION SNAPSHOTS AND CLONES Simplify data protection. EMC’s application-aware replication technologies provide nearly instantaneous copies of your data. In addition with space-efficient snapshots and clones you can recover an entire database in minutes. Unlike host-based SQL Server snapshots, SANbased hardware-assisted copies don’t impact your production server environment or LAN network. For large SQL databases, there’s no better way to back up, restore, and clone databases quickly—with full SQL Server awareness and integration. Recover your database in minutes with application-aware replication EMC Replication Manager POWERFUL CONTINUOUS REPLICATION CAPABILITIES Like a DVR for your databases and applications, EMC RecoverPoint records database workloads in real time—and enables you to quickly rewind back to any point in time. With EMC, you can choose recovery points that are as granular as every write for local or remote databases. As a result users can roll back their environment to a specific point, for example, right before the effects of a bad service pack, upgrade, or line of SQL code. With “consistency group” functionality, EMC Unified Storage replicates all “parts” of the application at exactly the same point in time so you can easily recover—without keeping users waiting for hours during lengthy re-indexing or re-seeding operations. RecoverPoint also has built-in, on-the-wire compression and WAN acceleration that, on average, reduces bandwidth utilization associated with traditional storage replication by a factor of 6–12x. These advanced data reduction techniques result in substantial reductions in ongoing WAN provider costs, and can enable organizations to implement offsite replication strategies without having to upgrade network lines. RecoverPoint Cluster Enabler (CE) for Microsoft integrates directly into the native Microsoft Cluster Services and enables SQL administrators to simply and easily fail over their entire SQL environment across two geographically dispersed sites by selecting “Move Group” from within the familiar Microsoft Cluster console. 4 FASTER APPLICATION DEPLOYMENT EMC Unified Storage enables you to easily create snapshots and clones of SQL Server databases. With the application-aware, wizard-driven interface you can make nearly instantaneous copies of SQL databases. Application integration with EMC Replication Manager software Hundreds of customers use EMC replication technologies in their test and development environments for faster testing, bug fixes, upgrades, and deployment of SQL Server-based applications. EMC is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with 15 competencies and has been recognized 20 times as a Microsoft Partner of the Year winner. 5 PROVEN TO PERFORM IN VIRTUALIZED ENVIRONMENTS EMC Unified Storage provides extensive integration with both Microsoft Hyper-V™ and VMware® vSphere™ to give you the performance and high availability you need: • Single-view storage and server management—EMC provides plug-ins for both VMware and Hyper-V environments so you can view storage and servers using your virtualization management software. • Smarter host multipathing for VMware and Hyper-V—VMware and Microsoft provide free multipathing capabilities for path failover. EMC provides path failover and load balancing of host-to-storage connections for fast failover and data availability. CONTACT US See your solution in action: Visit a Microsoft Technology Center and see for yourself how the combination of EMC Unified Storage systems and Microsoft SQL Server provides a strong foundation for all of your business needs. Contact your EMC representative for more information. • Advanced PowerShell Cmdlet Toolset—EMC offers a complete PowerShell Cmdlet Toolset for scripting in either VMware or Hyper-V environments. EMC solutions for Microsoft SQL Server have been thoroughly tested in virtualized environments. We offer documented test results and deployment best practices to give you confidence in our solutions and enable you to achieve the best results for your SQL-based applications. EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, and where information lives are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. VMware and vSphere are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc., in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. © Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. 2/11 Solution Overview H7468.3 EMC Corporation Hopkinton, Massachusetts 01748-9103 1-508-435-1000 In North America 1-866-464-7381 www.EMC.com