It’s been two years since EMC’s VCE and Isilon teams joined forces to begin offering converged infrastructure (CI) solutions that combine VCE Vblock Systems with Isilon scale-out NAS in support of a range of applications and workloads. And we couldn’t be more excited about the results. It’s extremely gratifying to hear about the many customers who are now realizing the significant advantages that these CI solutions deliver: accelerated time to value, management simplicity, increased efficiency, single point of contact for support and the knowledge that they are getting a tested and proven solution.
Building on this success, EMC converged infrastructure solutions that incorporate EMC Isilon scale-out NAS have recently been extended to include integration with EMC’s VSPEX program. As a result, Isilon storage is now featured in a new VSPEX reference architecture: EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure with Isilon Scale-Out NAS.
VSPEX Proven Infrastructure with EMC Isilon combines the simplicity, efficiency, and flexibility of VSPEX coupled with Isilon to deliver improved storage utilization, IT productivity, and increased end-user productivity. This new VSPEX reference architecture provides a blueprint for building a proven converged infrastructure that can support a number of use cases that most medium to large organizations are likely to need including:
- File Shares
- Home Directories for End-User Computing
- Active Archiving
The VSPEX reference architecture also includes the necessary details for building a proven converged infrastructure for businesses in the Media & Entertainment sector.
With this new VSPEX and Isilon reference architecture, organizations can gain the following advantages:
- Application-specific workload sizing, design and implementation guidance
- Accelerated time to value
- Leverage of VSPEX ecosystem partners for application flexibility and support
Built for virtualized environments, VSPEX enables faster deployment, more simplicity, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk. VSPEX with Isilon can be added to existing VSPEX environments or be deployed as a stand-alone solution to consolidate storage to lower costs and optimize today’s 2nd Platform applications while providing a foundation for next-generation 3rd Platform applications. This is also a great first step in building a highly versatile data lake foundation to store, manage, and protect Big Data.
Testing and validation, outlined in a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide, coupled with the VSPEX Sizing Tool, simplifies solution sizing and eliminates the risk and expense of over-provisioning. VSPEX with Isilon further simplifies and refines the sizing process by leveraging Isilon’s Predictive Performance Planning (P3) sizing tool functionality to enable efficient solution sizing for a broad range of file data workloads.
Of course, all these solutions are based on Isilon storage which provides a number of important benefits:
- Simple management – with Isilon’s single file system, single volume architecture
- Massive scalability – easily expands up to 50 PB in a single cluster
- Operational flexibility – multi-protocol support for a wide range of applications and workloads on one platform
- Unmatched efficiency – with over 80% storage utilization
- Robust data protection and security options
By leveraging the advantages of EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure with EMC Isilon scale-out NAS, organizations do indeed have a new blueprint for success!
For more information on how this solution may benefit your organization, I suggest that you contact your authorized EMC reseller or local representative.