Business Continuity and the Hitachi TagmaStore® Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller A White Paper

By Christophe Bertrand, Roselinda Schulman, Bill Martin, and Claus Mikkelsen

January 2007

Executive Summary

Effective business continuity and disaster recovery solutions are critical to organizations operating in 24/7 environments. These organizations must meet requirements for business continuity testing and make effective operational use of multiple data centers and heterogeneous IT infrastructures.

This white paper highlights several key challenges that large enterprises face in real-world business continuity environments, particularly when business and regulatory requirements mandate long-distance replication of business information.

It also highlights the universal data storage and replication platforms from Hitachi Data Systems. The Hitachi TagmaStore® Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller help customers meet business continuity challenges cost-effectively, while protecting and leveraging existing technology investments. They also enable enterprises to increase service levels while reducing management complexity and operational risk.

For business continuity applications, the key features and benefits of the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller include:

• Management of externally attached, heterogeneous disk storage—enabling data migration and replication to lower-cost disk when appropriate, and providing consistent tools and procedures for operational resilience

• Replication with data integrity and consistency—based on the proven technology of Hitachi TrueCopy® Synchronous and Hitachi TrueCopy Asynchronous software, as well as Hitachi Compatible Replication software for IBM® XRC® (formerly Hitachi Extended Remote Copy or HXRC), has now been extended to heterogeneous storage and server platforms with the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller.

• New long-distance replication capabilities—using disk-based journaling to increase resilience, while improving performance of production applications and reducing costs

• Advanced multi-data-center configurations—intelligently combining synchronous and asynchronous replication technologies to meet business needs more effectively, and at lower cost

This paper illustrates the application of these new technology choices to meet enterprise needs cost-effectively in a number of scenarios, including business continuity testing, backup operations, and data lifecycle management.

Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1

Universal Storage Platform Overview .................................................................................................... 2

Heterogeneous Storage Pool ing ........................................................................................................... 3

Data Movement and Data Protection Capabilities............................................................................................................ 3

Hitachi Universal Replicator Software for the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller ................... 4

Business Continuity Chal lenges ............................................................................................................ 6

Business Continuity Operations and Testing.................................................................................................................... 6

Maximizing Uptime, Productivity, and Return on Investment (ROI) ........................................................... 6

Backup and Recovery .......................................................................................................................... 6

Application Examples ........................................................................................................................... 7

CASE 1. Business Continuity Operations—Two Data Centers ........................................................................................ 7

CASE 2. Business Continuity Operations—Three Data Centers...................................................................................... 8

CASE 3. Change Control and Application Testing ........................................................................................................... 9

CASE 4. Improving Backup and Recovery for Data Protection .....................................................................................10

Case Study—A Large Financial Services Firm ...................................................................................... 11

Conclusion: Toward Operational Resi l ience ......................................................................................... 12

Appendix A: H itachi Data Systems Software and Serv ices .................................................................... 13

Software..........................................................................................................................................................................13

Professional Services ......................................................................................................................................................14

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Business Continuity and the Hitachi TagmaStore® Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller A White Paper

By Christophe Bertrand, Roselinda Schulman, Bill Martin, and Claus Mikkelsen

Introduction Business continuity is a matter of increasing concern to organizations today as they respond to external threats and operational risks—and to more stringent demands from corporate stakeholders and government regulatory agencies.

Business continuity involves management and technology strategies that maintain required service levels for essential business functions and processes, preventing or minimizing interruptions caused by planned or unplanned events. Business continuity planning typically focuses on data protection and availability, in addition to business-critical processes, skills, logistics, and recovery execution. Technology capabilities for business continuity often include high-availability infrastructure at primary production locations, combined with disaster recovery capabilities at one or more remote sites.

This white paper introduces the business continuity capabilities supported by the Hitachi TagmaStore® Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller, including cost-effective local and remote data protection and replication solutions.

The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller combine proven hardware and software with important technology innovations, enabling consistent and universal solutions to business continuity challenges and related business needs.

These business needs include technology management objectives, such as matching tiers of storage with application requirements across the enterprise—enabling organizations to satisfy service-level agreements with cost-effective solutions and a consistent approach to storage management.

This consistent approach makes a strong contribution to operational resilience by supporting reliable application of core processes, skills, and technology. Consistent platforms and technology management processes help enterprises build robust organizational capabilities to manage and absorb change, and to respond effectively to new threats and opportunities.

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Universal Storage Platform Overview The Hitachi Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller are a combination of proven hardware and software technology that delivers universal data and storage services across heterogeneous platforms1, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Universal Storage Platform

File Service

Red Hat/SuSE Linux

Enterprise Resource Planning

Sun

Video Streaming

HP

Data Mining

Fibre Channel/IP SAN

IBM® z/OS®

Hitachi TagmaStore® Universal Storage Platform

E-mail

Microsoft Windows

Print Service

Novell

Hitachi Lightning 9980V™ enterprise storage

100% HighPerformance Clariion

IBM Shark

ArchiveBackup

Thunder SATA

99.9% GeneralPurpose

99.9% GeneralPurpose

Hitachi Thunder 9585V™ modular storage

DisasterManagement

The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller provide a consistent data management and storage services platform for heterogeneous servers and storage.

The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller enable customers to meet their service-level and business-continuity objectives—reducing cost, complexity, and risk while protecting and leveraging existing technology investments.

Even bigger, faster, and more powerful than the successful previous-generation Hitachi Lightning 9900™ V Series enterprise storage systems, the Universal Storage Platform uses third-generation Hitachi Universal Star Network™ crossbar switched architecture to support up to 2.5 million IOPS. Its larger cache—up to 256GB—combines with as much as 81GB/sec of internal bandwidth and improved algorithms to deliver industry-leading scalability and performance.

1 For a discussion of basic disaster recovery issues along with alternative data replication and recovery management solutions, see Disaster Recovery Issues and Solutions by Roselinda R. Schulman, a Hitachi Data Systems white paper.

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Heterogeneous Storage Pooling The Universal Storage Platform supports up to 330TB of internal storage. It also provides heterogeneous multiprotocol connectivity—up to 192 physical ports that can handle Fibre Channel, network attached storage (NAS), IBM® ESCON® or FICON®, or iSCSI—each of which can be presented in as many as 1024 virtual connections. Up to 32PB of externally attached storage can include Lightning 9900 V Series systems, Hitachi TagmaStore Adaptable Modular Storage systems (including SATA Intermix Option), Hitachi TagmaStore WorkGroup Modular Storage systems, and supported disk storage systems from other vendors, such as EMC or IBM.

With its multiplatform connectivity and its virtualized, heterogeneous storage pooling, Universal Storage Platform is the first intelligent storage platform to deliver industrial-strength virtualization, replication, migration, and management capabilities. It provides a consistent management platform for simplified configuration, multiprotocol connectivity, common path management, and enhanced security. It supports software that maps application requirements to storage attributes to deliver required quality of service from multiple tiers of storage, in part by leveraging a universal replication and data movement engine.

Leveraging the architectural foundation of the industry-leading Universal Storage Platform, the Network Storage Controller model NSC55 delivers proven performance, availability, and reliability, as well as advanced data storage management features previously not available to the midrange market.

Offered in a rackmounted form factor and at a price point that places it well within reach of the mid-size enterprise, the NSC55 can help storage customers reduce overall complexity in their storage environment and maximize existing resources by aggregating heterogeneous storage devices into a single, virtual pool that can be managed through a single, centralized console using a common set of tools.

The NSC55 brings to mid-size companies unique capabilities—controller-based virtualization and management of as much as 16PB of internal and attached storage, eight logical partitions to ensure application quality of service, and universal replication across heterogeneous storage—enabling customers to deploy applications within a new framework, fully leverage—and add value to—current investments, and more closely align IT and business initiatives.

As an integral component of Application Optimized Storage™ solutions from Hitachi Data Systems, the NSC55 provides a foundation for matching application requirements to different classes of storage in open systems and mainframe environments.

The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller thus provide the foundation for a consistent, universal approach to data lifecycle management, business continuance, and Application Optimized Storage solutions.

Data Movement and Data Protection Capabilities

Data movement is the key to business continuity and to cost-effective tiered storage management. Enterprises must have common means of moving data up and down tiers of storage to enable Application Optimized Storage solutions for production, test, and archiving environments. And for disaster recovery, organizations must have consistent tools and capabilities for replicating and recovering corporate data.

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The data movement software modules from Hitachi Data Systems offer a number of important capabilities:

• Full volume copy using Hitachi ShadowImage™ Heterogeneous In-System Replication software bundle, which includes ShadowImage software as well as Hitachi Copy-on-Write Snapshot software

• Snapshots using Hitachi Copy-on-Write Snapshot software

• Synchronous and asynchronous replication with Hitachi TrueCopy® Synchronous, Hitachi TrueCopy Asynchronous, and Hitachi Universal Replicator software

• Data movement between storage tiers or (with Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller) using ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software

• Efficient, cost-effective replication and recovery with Universal Replicator software

• Nondisruptive application data relocation between differentiated tiers of heterogeneous storage with Hitachi HiCommand® Tiered Storage Manager software

• Common access to data movement products through Hitachi HiCommand Device Manager, Hitachi HiCommand Replication Monitor, and Hitachi Business Continuity Manager software

The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller support all these capabilities and more (see Appendix A for a more detailed list). These products and services can be combined to meet specific business continuity requirements and operational needs.

Hitachi Universal Replicator Software for the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller

For business continuity and related business requirements, the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller operate with an important new capability: Universal Replicator software. Universal Replicator software ultimately supports real-time replication for all internal and externally connected disk storage volumes, making it a very powerful solution for remote-copy operations.2 Universal Replicator software provides a consistent replication approach and enables a common set of procedures, tools, and skills to manage diverse, heterogeneous storage and application environments.

Universal Replicator software complements existing data protection, data movement, and business continuity products from Hitachi Data Systems. And the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller will make these capabilities available for management and protection of externally attached, heterogeneous storage resources. Thus, Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller with Universal Replicator software support the data replication and movement requirements of disparate applications and business processes.

Universal Replicator software differs from other solutions in that it uses a pull-style process to copy data to the remote site. The primary storage system writes data to its own journal volumes, but the replication processes that control asynchronous replication are located on the remote system. This approach optimizes the replication process, thus reducing resource consumption on the primary storage system and improving production application performance. In effect, Universal Replicator software restores primary site storage to its intended role as a transaction processing resource, not a replication engine.

2 Customers should check with their Hitachi Data Systems representatives regarding the scheduled availability of Universal Replicator support for externally connected

disk storage systems from other vendors.

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Universal Replicator software, running on the Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller, delivers a number of important benefits:

Building on a proven legacy of data integrity and consistency. Universal Replicator software uses technology proven reliable in both TrueCopy Synchronous and TrueCopy Asynchronous software and Hitachi Compatible Replication software for IBM XRC. Each transmitted record set includes time-stamp (mainframe only) and sequence-number information, enabling the replication engine to verify receipt of all records at the remote site and to arrange them in the correct write order for storage.

Liberating resources and improving performance. By using local disk-based journaling and pull-style remote replication, Universal Replicator software releases critical resources that are consumed by other asynchronous replication approaches at the primary site—such as disk storage cache in storage-based solutions, or server memory in host-based software approaches. Universal Replicator software improves cache utilization, lowering costs and improving performance of production transaction applications.

Improving resilience and data integrity. With Universal Replicator software, operations can survive temporary communication problems for longer periods without data loss. Should the replication link fail between sites, Universal Replicator software keeps logging changes in the local journal so that they can be transmitted later, without interruption to the protection process or the application. Data consistency is preserved, and the user can maintain a more current recovery point objective (RPO) during outage situations, compared with existing replication methodologies.

Controlling bandwidth costs and RPO. With Universal Replicator software, the remote storage system processes data from the primary journal volumes over the data replication network as fast as the bandwidth allows. If available bandwidth does not support optimal replication—for example, during peak-load spikes in transaction volume—the primary journal volumes simply buffer the data on disk until more bandwidth becomes available. Users can improve bandwidth utilization and lower their communication costs by sizing bandwidth for average bandwidth needs—not for peak usage. This simplifies bandwidth planning and empowers users to better control their RPO in relation to infrastructure and communication costs.

Managing storage costs. Universal Replicator software can replicate to and from externally attached, lower-cost disk storage. The journal volumes must be located within the Universal Storage Platform or Network Controller, but the data volumes can be located on externally attached storage. This capability enables enterprises to stretch budgets through lower acquisition costs or leverage existing storage systems to enable more complete and resilient disaster-recovery configurations.

4 by 4 support. For large IBM z/OS® customers, Universal Replicator software provides the capability to have one consistency group spread across multiple controllers in z/OS environments. This allows large users the ability to have up to 64K volumes be consistent to a single point in time, while maintaining a near synchronous RPO.

Multi-data-center operations. Universal Replicator software working with TrueCopy Synchronous software supports improved performance and cost reduction in multisite business continuity configurations. These advanced solutions can use fewer intermediate copies than alternative approaches, while placing the copies on less expensive storage and reducing resource consumption at the primary site.

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Business Continuity Challenges

Business Continuity Operations and Testing

Business continuity requires effective primary-site and remote-site capabilities for normal operations, and tested procedures for recovery from planned and unplanned outages.

Regular business continuity testing is critically important, but it remains a challenge for most organizations—especially those that must manage a heterogeneous server and storage infrastructure. Large amounts of data may need to be copied or migrated to multiple sites, and the task of disaster response teams and IT staffs is made more difficult by the need to execute unique technical procedures for each hardware platform using different tools and management consoles.

Introduce changes to the applications or infrastructure, and a task that was difficult even in a stable IT environment gains even more complexity through the introduction of new risks and unexpected outcomes. Introduce the need to support data replication to multiple data centers and the challenge is greater yet. Coordinating replication to multiple sites while guaranteeing data integrity over any distance with advanced recovery capabilities—and the strenuous bandwidth considerations that come with it—is the apex of difficulty.

As a result of all this, most organizations fail to adequately test their disaster recovery plans on a regular basis. It just seems too complex and expensive. And it’s difficult to keep everyone current on the skills and procedures needed for effective recovery operations. Yet increased regulatory pressures and heightened corporate governance in the face of new threats are escalating the need for such testing.

The Hitachi plaftorms’ simplification of disaster recovery—via the application of a single replication technology universally across heterogeneous platforms and amelioration of the bandwidth issues associated with long-distance replication—makes regular and comprehensive disaster recovery testing more feasible and affordable.

Maximizing Uptime, Productivity, and Return on Investment (ROI) Business continuity needs to be more than just insurance against disaster. Ideal approaches will also eliminate downtime associated with system upgrades and scheduled maintenance by transferring primary processing to the secondary site during those periods. Similar approaches enable secondary access to current data for activities such as change control and application testing—without impacting regular production workloads. Application Optimized Storage solutions thus accommodate temporary, special-purpose, and changing workloads with appropriate storage configurations, using flexible data movement and replication capabilities combined with a range of cost-effective storage choices.

Backup and Recovery In many IT organizations, backup is still the number one headache. Backup windows are shrinking or have long since disappeared. Single-file restore requests take too much time and energy to fulfill.

With the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller, storage administrators can now create partitions that perform as so many virtual machines. This unique capability is currently used by many organizations to create a backup partition that also leverages tiered storage, thus maximizing the overall investment in the platform. Disk-to-disk backup solutions—using cost-effective disk storage such as SATA are helping to meet these needs.

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Storage platforms can be further leveraged by optimizing the backup infrastructure with one of the Virtual Tape Library Solutions Hitachi Data Systems offers, through a partnership with Diligent™.

Virtual Tape Library Solutions by Hitachi Data Systems enable customers to obtain all the benefits of backing up to disk without changing established backup policies or procedures. This integrated suite of the software, server, and disk creates a “virtual” tape library that appears to the backup application as one or more real tape libraries. Replacing slow tapes with high-speed disk enables organizations to increase backup/recovery performance, optimize their storage infrastructures, and support business resilience objectives. Virtual Tape Library solutions deliver streamlined backup and recovery operations, greatly improved RPOs and recovery time objectives (RTOs), and a drastically reduced total cost of ownership.

Application Examples The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller provide effective solutions for the major business continuity challenges. The following application examples illustrate the power of this innovative technology platform to help reduce business risks, lower IT costs, and eliminate IT headaches.

CASE 1. Business Continuity Operations—Two Data Centers

Hitachi Data Systems offers powerful solutions for business continuity as well as for disaster recovery testing while maintaining complete disaster recovery protection. Figure 2 illustrates a typical configuration that uses TrueCopy software to maintain an exact, I/O consistent data volume at the remote site. It also uses ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software to create a separate copy for disaster recovery testing. This enables the organization to test its disaster recovery plan with current data.

Figure 2. Business Continuity and Data Recovery Testing with Two Data Centers

Point-in-timeCopy

Primary Data Center

Application Testing

Remote Site

Disaster RecoveryPlan Testing—with

Current Data

Remote Copy

PrimaryData Volume

Remote DataVolume

Point-in-timeCopy

Enterprises use solutions such as TrueCopy or Universal Replicator software to create a remote copy for disaster recovery. ShadowImage In-System Replication software provides point-in-time copies for testing.

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Business Continuity Operations. Universal Storage Platform and its replication software provide several simple but effective improvements to this scenario. For business continuity operations, the primary storage volume can live on any storage system attached to Universal Storage Platform, and the secondary volume can live on any storage system attached to the remote Universal Storage Platform. Thus, a single tool can perform replication at storage system speeds among systems with different native replication tools. Also, in the case of Universal Replicator software, the elimination of the need to dedicate large amounts of cache radically improves transaction performance at the originating site.

Business Continuity Testing. For disaster recovery testing, the remote Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller can create a point-in-time copy on its internal disk storage—or on any externally attached storage system. Organizations can easily direct current copies of production data to inexpensive or legacy storage, enabling more complete and cost-effective disaster recovery testing.

CASE 2. Business Continuity Operations—Three Data Centers

For business-critical applications and data, many organizations have considered or adopted a three data center (3DC) replication model. In the 3DC model, synchronous replication—which can achieve a copy that is fully up-to-date at all times over limited distance—is employed between the primary data center and a nearby hot site. The data is then replicated to a geographically remote site using asynchronous replication, which works over any distance. In the event of a local disaster, customers have the option of recovering to the intermediate site (if it has appropriate computing and staff resources), or to the remote site with some catch-up delay. In the event of a disaster geographically broad enough to impact the primary and intermediate sites, recovery is still possible by failing over to the remote site with some delay and some data loss. Thus, a 3DC configuration provides the best combination of protection against disaster with minimal data loss and downtime.

3DC Solution. With its introduction of the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller, Hitachi Data Systems offers additional replication choices that reduce the cost of a 3DC configuration, making this approach affordable for a broader range of enterprises and applications. The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller actually support the previously described configuration using TrueCopy Synchronous/TrueCopy Asynchronous and ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software, yet it also supports a simplified, more cost-effective solution using Universal Replicator software.

With the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller, combinations of TrueCopy Synchronous/TrueCopy Asynchronous and Universal Replicator software enable two different 3DC configurations—cascade, and multitarget. Figure 3 illustrates these two configurations.

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Figure 3. Enhanced 3DC Replication Configurations

Primary

CascadeSynchronous

Synchronous

Intermediate Remote

Asynchronous

Multitarget

Asynchronous

Enterprises can choose among different 3DC replication configurations, depending on business needs. 3DC cascade provides complete data copies at intermediate sites that support server clusters and application failover. Multitarget configurations offer the best protection against local and regional disasters at a higher cost.

Universal Storage Platform provides a “no data loss” solution with less complexity, scripting, and overhead than previous solutions. For a more detailed discussion of advanced 3DC configurations enabled by Universal Replicator software, see the separate Hitachi Data Systems white paper, “Universal Replicator Architecture Overview.”

Business Continuity Testing. For disaster recovery testing, the remote site’s Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller can create a point-in-time copy with ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software on its internal disk storage—or on any externally attached storage systems, such as one of the Hitachi modular storage models or other supported storage.

By providing more cost-effective remote replication and enabling customers to use externally attached storage in business continuity configurations, the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller make 3DC configurations and full disaster recovery testing more affordable. Enterprises can conduct business continuity testing more frequently, helping to ensure that disaster recovery plans and procedures are kept current and effective.

Bottom Line: By providing a consistent management interface for all the data replication functions—across multiple sites and tiers of storage and replication—the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller reduce management costs, minimize planned and unplanned downtime, and greatly improve ROI.

CASE 3. Change Control and Application Testing

Change control and application testing are important elements of business continuity and operational resilience. Enterprises much prefer to discover software and configuration problems on a test system, not in production.

For simple changes, an isolated test of a single application or system may be sufficient. However, larger and more complex systems can produce unexpected results when scaled up for production with real application data. In such a situation, the best practice is to conduct a full test at production scale, with all parts of the system processing real data.

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In the past, this approach to comprehensive testing might have been too complex to configure, or too expensive and disruptive to stage on the available infrastructure. Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller make this kind of testing simpler to manage and more affordable to execute. An administrator can use ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software to create a copy of production data for testing.

With the Lightning or Thunder family product lines, ShadowImage software would create the secondary copy on a volume inside the storage system. The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller offer even more flexibility: the target volume can be located internally, or on any externally attached storage system. For example, the Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller can place the test data on a low-cost disk storage system, and can then present that volume to a separate test server. By running the test on a separate server, connected to separate storage volumes, the enterprise reduces the risk of corrupting production data or interfering with production server workloads. This approach to application testing leverages the easy connection capability provided by the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller—shared access to pooled storage resources—along with its ability to utilize externally attached disk storage to optimize cost and performance.

CASE 4. Improving Backup and Recovery for Data Protection

While many enterprises maintain disaster recovery copies of critical data on disk or tape at a remote site, they also keep local backup copies at their production data centers. These local copies are essential for quick recovery from hardware or software problems, and they are typically more accessible to operations staff than the remote copies may be. Also, access to remote copies can be compromised by interruptions that impact the remote site or the communication links.

As backup windows shrink to zero, and the cost of disk storage continues to fall, many organizations are adopting disk-to-disk (D2D) backup strategies. This approach leverages Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller capabilities to provide fast, cost-effective local backup to disk—and also supports tape backup and archiving at the remote site.

Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller provide remote replication and point-in-time copy capabilities—including Universal Replicator and ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software—that enable cost-effective backup to tape or to Hitachi modular platforms with the inexpensive SATA Intermix Option, locally and/or remotely.

One configuration that maximizes the use of the platforms is to leverage the virtual portioning capabilities afforded by both systems. It is now possible to create a virtual system dedicated to backup to disk, with its own characteristics, resource allocation etc.

With the ability to manage low-cost disk and leverage existing resources, and support of the full suite of replication software from Hitachi Data Systems, the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller provide a common infrastructure for a wide variety of backup and recovery strategies. Hitachi Data Systems also offers professional services that help enterprises design, configure, and deploy solutions that meet their specific needs.

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Case Study—A Large Financial Services Firm Based on the applications environment and business continuity strategy of a large financial services firm, Figure 4 illustrates the power and flexibility of the Universal Storage Platform and its data replication capabilities.

Figure 4. Universal Storage Platform with Consistency Groups

Remote TapeBackup/Vault

Point-in-timeCopies

(DSS Day 1)

Point-in-timeCopies

(DSS Day 2)

Intermediate Data Center Remote Data CenterPrimary Data Center

Hitachi Universal ReplicatorAsychronous Remote Copy

Hitachi TrueCopy® SynchronousRemote Copy

Universal Storage Platform

Universal Storage Platform

Hitachi TagmaStore®

Universal Storage Platform

ShadowImageCopies

Remote DataVolume(synch)

BackupServer Hitachi Thunder 9500™ V

Series system with SATAIntermix Option

JNL JNLPrimary

Data Volume

RemoteData Volume

(async)

This approach enables the organization to create duplicate DSS copies with zero impact to production online transaction processing (OLTP) applications.

The production database spans multiple data volumes, so this configuration uses ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software with Hitachi Business Continuity Manager software to split off accurate point-in-time copies of a multivolume consistency group. This approach enables the customer to create duplicate DSS copies with zero impact to production OLTP applications.

Point-in-time Copies for a Large Database. This organization creates daily point-in-time copies of its production OLTP database for use in an online decision support system (DSS) that requires up-to-date customer data. Since large DSS queries can run for 36 hours or more, this company maintains multiple DSS copies—making a new point-in-time copy every 24 hours, while allowing in-process jobs to complete on earlier DSS copies. The production database spans multiple data volumes, so this configuration uses ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software with Hitachi Business Continuity Manager software to split off accurate point-in-time copies of a multivolume consistency group. This approach enables the administrator to create duplicate DSS copies with zero impact to production OLTP applications. Incidentally, this customer has determined that the financial benefits of running DSS queries on current data—rather than two-day-old data—more than justify the cost of maintaining two full DSS copies of the production database.

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Three Data Center Replication. To support its business continuity needs—including regulatory agency guidance on out-of-region disaster recovery capabilities—this company has selected an advanced three data center (3DC) replication solution from Hitachi Data Systems. In this solution, TrueCopy Synchronous software maintains an exact, synchronous copy of the production OLTP data at an in-region disaster recovery hot site 20 miles away. Universal Replicator software separately maintains an asynchronous copy at the remote disaster recovery site—more than 1,000 miles away.

Compared to a cascade or pass-through approach, this configuration eliminates the potential of having no disaster recovery should the intermediate site fail. These configurations are discussed in further detail in the white paper “Universal Replicator Advanced Technology.”

Backup and Testing. This business continuity configuration also uses Universal Storage Platform/Network Storage Controller capabilities to make copies of data on lower-cost, externally attached storage such as Hitachi Thunder 9500™ V Series storage with SATA Intermix Option. These copies can be used for disk-to-disk or disk-to-tape backup, and for additional purposes such as disaster recovery testing. The advanced 3DC configuration also supports rapid production takeover at the remote site—in less than two hours—when required for operational recovery, full disaster recovery testing or scheduled upgrades and configuration changes.

As this case study illustrates, the advanced capabilities of the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller provide a robust and powerful foundation for meeting the requirements of large organizations with complex needs in production, development, testing, archiving, and business continuance—and for retaining and protecting information throughout its lifecycle.

Conclusion: Toward Operational Resilience A strong business continuity strategy is an essential component of a broader business resilience program, which builds robust organizational capabilities to anticipate and respond effectively to changes, threats, and opportunities.

By using the Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller in an Application Optimized Storage strategy to manage heterogeneous disk storage resources, enterprises can apply consistent procedures, skills, and training across all their storage platforms. Rather than maintaining separate procedures and skills for data replication and recovery on each storage platform, the organization applies one powerful and consistent set of replication capabilities and storage management tools to all its disk storage resources. In a disaster recovery scenario, the risks of error are lower when the procedures are consistent across all platforms. It is also easier to ensure that the required skills are always available when needed for recovery of critical business applications and data.

The Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller support consistent user interfaces and powerful automated storage management capabilities for managing heterogeneous storage. Combined with the broad range of Hitachi Data Systems products and professional services, it enables enterprises to build consistent, policy-based approaches to business continuity, data lifecycle management, and operational resilience.

Looking ahead, operational resilience requires more than data protection and availability—it must also include capabilities to leverage data and infrastructure to detect and anticipate changes, and to align service levels and costs with application requirements as they change over time. By integrating data management resources across multiple lines of business using a common set of management tools and processes, enterprises can extend the benefits of operational resilience to the full range of business functions and processes.

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Appendix A: Hitachi Data Systems Software and Services This appendix provides summary descriptions of many data movement products and features supported by the Hitachi TagmaStore® Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller, as well as professional services that assist customers to meet their business objectives for business continuity and operational resilience. Customers should check with Hitachi Data Systems for the latest information on available products and services.

Software

Hitachi Universal Replicator Software Powering a business continuity framework that satisfies the most demanding business continuity and uptime requirements, the remote replication capabilities of Universal Replicator software intelligently duplicate data among storage environments controlled through the Universal Storage Platform and/or Network Storage Controller. Universal Replicator software is a replication engine for asynchronously replicating data hosted on the Universal Storage Platform or Network Storage Controller—over any distance—for business continuity or improved IT operations, and without the need for redundant servers or replication appliances.

Hitachi ShadowImage™ Heterogeneous Remote Replication Software Bundle The Hitachi ShadowImage Heterogeneous Remote Replication Software Bundle includes ShadowImage software as well as Hitachi Copy-on-Write Snapshot software.

• Hitachi Copy-on-Write Snapshot software provides logical snapshot data replication for immediate use in decision support, software testing and development, data backup, or rapid recovery operations. The high-speed, non-disruptive Copy-on-Write Snapshot software rapidly creates up to 64 point-in-time copies of any data volume within supported Hitachi storage systems—or attached to the Universal Storage Platform and/or Network Storage Controller. Since the snapshots only store the changed data blocks in a separate storage pool, the volume of storage capacity required for each Copy-on-Write Snapshot copy is substantially smaller than the source volume—providing significant savings when compared with full cloning methods. Copy-on-Write Snapshot copies can be used for rapid data restores, application testing and development, data mining/data warehousing, or non-disruptive backup or maintenance procedures.

• Hitachi ShadowImage Heterogeneous In-System Replication software’s high-speed, non-disruptive local mirroring technology rapidly creates multiple copies of mission-critical information within all Hitachi storage systems in mainframe and open systems environments. ShadowImage software keeps data RAID-protected and fully recoverable—without affecting service or performance levels. Replicated data volumes can then be split from the host applications and used for system backups, application testing, and data mining applications while business continues to run at full capacity.

Hitachi TrueCopy® Synchronous and Hitachi TrueCopy Asynchronous Software TrueCopy software provides a host- and network-independent data replication solution over any distance. It rapidly copies data between Hitachi Lightning 9900™ V Series enterprise storage systems, the Universal Storage Platform, and/or the Network Storage Controller without affecting application performance. These copies can be used for production, rapid recovery following an outage, disaster recovery, data warehousing/data mining, or migration applications. TrueCopy Synchronous and TrueCopy Asynchronous software versions are available for open systems and mainframe environments and can be integrated with ShadowImage In-System Replication software to enable robust business continuity solutions. (TrueCopy Synchronous and TrueCopy Extended Distance software provide remote replication capabilities for Hitachi TagmaStore Adaptable Modular Storage systems.)

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Hitachi Business Continuity Manager Software Business Continuity Manager software offers centralized replication management for IBM® z/OS® mainframe environments. Through a single, consistent interface based on familiar TSO/ISPF full-screen panels, Business Continuity Manager software automates ShadowImage In-System Replication, TrueCopy Synchronous/TrueCopy Asynchronous remote replication, and Hitachi Universal Replicator operations, enterprise-wide. Access to critical system-performance metrics and thresholds provides proactive problem avoidance and optimum performance to ensure that service-level objectives are met or exceeded. The Business Continuity Manager auto-discovery capability eliminates hours of tedious input and costly human error when configuring and protecting complex, mission-critical applications and data.

Hitachi Compatible Replication software for IBM® XRC This IBM z/OS XRC-compatible remote replication software, a cross-license technology between Hitachi Data Systems and IBM, lets administrators create and share server-based remote copies between Hitachi Lightning 9900™ Series, Lightning 9900 V Series, Network Storage Controller, and/or Universal Storage Platform enterprise storage systems and an IBM Shark. Hitachi Data Systems is the only storage vendor capable of fully supporting IBM XRC command sets.

Application Optimized Storage™ Solutions Application Optimized Storage solutions from Hitachi Data Systems combine Hitachi Storage Management and HiCommand® Suite business and application modules with legendary high-performance/high-availability Hitachi storage systems. This combination enables organizations to precisely match business application requirements to Hitachi storage system attributes (performance, availability, data value, and cost), leveraging the application-centric management capabilities of the Storage Management and HiCommand Suite software.

Hitachi Data Systems is uniquely qualified to deliver Application Optimized Storage solutions through: a common set of management and software tools across its entire product line; the ability to manage business applications’ service levels all the way to the storage device; high-performance, high-availability, highly scalable storage systems with extensive heterogeneous and secure, multiprotocol connectivity for massive consolidation and multitiered deployment.

Professional Services

Overview Hitachi Data Systems Global Solution Services (GSS) group provides professional services to help keep data safe, preparing organizations to maintain business continuity during both planned and unplanned downtime. To keep critical business operations up, running, and successful, GSS leverages unique experience acquired in implementing the most demanding data protection and disaster recovery solutions for a broad range of businesses. By applying superior data mirroring and replication capabilities, best-of-breed backup, the guaranteed resiliency of Hitachi storage hardware, and proven connectivity architectures, GSS provides the continuity services that help minimize downtime and speed recovery in the event of disaster.

Risk Analysis Workshop. This service asks, “How well protected are an organization’s information assets? Would they survive a natural or manmade disaster? How quickly could the organization recover from an outage? Has the organization adequately identified and prioritized risk areas? Given budgetary constraints, what types of risk (downtime and/or data loss) is the organization willing to live with?” The Risk Analysis Workshop identifies, ranks, and evaluates risks specific to the organization’s business operations to provide the organization with a risk mitigation road map.

Backup Assessment Services. By assessing just how well a current backup infrastructure is working, Backup Assessment Services can provide information to help improve its efficiency and create and deliver custom solutions that allow organizations to balance increasing volumes of data with shrinking IT budgets and meet their recovery-point and recovery-time objectives. From analyzing components of the existing environment to delivering

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a comprehensive report with recommendations for improvement to implementing a total solution, Backup Assessment Services deliver what the organization needs to establish a clear baseline for better data protection, now and in the future.

Hitachi SplitSecond™ Solutions. These solutions dramatically diminish backup time while slashing mission-critical application or database restore time from hours to minutes. Each SplitSecond solution is designed to address specific application needs of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle with a combination of services, hardware, and software.

Remote Copy Planning and Design Service. This service assists organizations with bandwidth decisions and distance data-replication challenges. Using Hitachi Data Systems remote replication best practices, GSS consultants produce a detailed study of the current workload and recommend the bandwidth necessary to support the remote copy environment. This includes a high-level design for remote replication solutions, as well as a detailed analysis of workload and performance characteristics to help support cost-effective bandwidth decisions.

Business Continuity Software Services. These efficient services, based on products from Hitachi Data Systems, allow for a faster time to implementation. GSS consultants have the product expertise and experience to help organizations plan, design, and/or implement their business continuity solutions effectively and efficiently.

Tape Backup Services. Hitachi Data Systems helps simplify the way organizations manage both copy and centralized backup and recovery processes. In these services, GSS consultants assist with planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of backup software, empowering the organization to seamlessly and cost-effectively deploy, implement, and optimize backup tasks.

Replication Automation Conversion Services. Once an organization has decided to upgrade to Hitachi storage hardware and replication software, GSS can help transition the legacy replication environment to rapidly take full advantage of the new storage investment. As new storage hardware is deployed, it is important to simultaneously migrate the advanced replication functionality that the business relies on for disaster recovery. Often, these advanced software functions can act as a leash that impedes upgrades to more capable products. Hitachi Data Systems can help ease the transition so the organization can enjoy the benefits of the new hardware and software more quickly and efficiently.

Storage Cluster for Microsoft® Environments Services. This service enables organizations to enjoy unprecedented levels of reliability and availability from Microsoft-based applications by clustering their Microsoft environments across their data center or across an ocean. By leveraging Microsoft clustering over Hitachi TrueCopy Synchronous or TrueCopy Asynchronous remote replication software, the service allows organizations to improve mission-critical availability and reliability in their Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 environments.

Hitachi Data Systems Corporation Corporate Headquarters 750 Central Expressway Santa Clara, California 95050-2627 U.S.A. Phone: 1 408 970 1000 www.hds.com info@hds.com

Asia Pacific and Americas 750 Central Expressway

Santa Clara, California 95050-2627

U.S.A.

Phone: 1 408 970 1000

info@hds.com

Europe Headquarters Sefton Park

Stoke Poges

Buckinghamshire SL2 4HD

United Kingdom

Phone: + 44 (0)1753 618000

info.uk@hds.com

Hitachi is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd., and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. The Hitachi Data Systems logotype is a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. HiCommand is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. HiCommand is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd.

TagmaStore and TrueCopy are registered trademarks and Thunder 9500, Application Optimized Storage, Lightning 9900, SplitSecond, ShadowImage, and Universal Star Network are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation.

IBM, ESCON, FICON, and z/OS are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Diligent is a trademark of Diligent Technologies Corporation.

All other trademarks, service marks, company names, and logos are properties of their respective owners.

Notice: This document is for informational purposes only, and does not set forth any warranty, express or implied, concerning any equipment or service offered or to be offered by Hitachi Data Systems. This document describes some capabilities that are conditioned on a maintenance contract with Hitachi Data Systems being in effect, and that may be configuration-dependent, and features that may not be currently available. Contact your local Hitachi Data Systems sales office for information on feature and product availability.

Hitachi Data Systems sells and licenses its products subject to certain terms and conditions, including limited warranties. To see a copy of these terms and conditions prior to purchase or license, please go to http://www.hds.com/products_services/support/warranty.html or call your local sales representative to obtain a printed copy. If you purchase or license the product, you are deemed to have accepted these terms and conditions.

©2007, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

WHP-162-02 January 2007