A Large European Telecommunications Company

A Large European Telecommunications Company

Reducing energy costs by 25-50 percent


The need
When storage managers for this European telecommunications company implemented a virtualized storage environment, they sought greater insight into how storage systems were used so they could optimize data placement.

The solution
Working with IBM, company operators gained an early warning of potential performance and capacity issues and the visibility needed to improve storage allocation.

The benefit
25-50 percent reduction in energy costs; reduced storage costs by decreasing amount of data in Tier 1 storage from 90 percent to 20 percent; decreased spending on new Tier 1 storage arrays; reduced application placement time from one month to one day

Solution Components

Servers
· IBM® System Storage® SAN Volume Controller

Software
· IBM Tivoli® Storage Productivity Center

Services
· IBM Global Technology Services—Server Services, Storage and Data Services, Maintenance and Technical Support Services
· IBM Software Premium Support
· IBM Storage Tiering Activity Reporter¹ (STAR)


What data should be placed on which storage devices? As storage managers know, the answer depends on many factors and, overtime, application behavior changes may make initial data placement decisions no longer valid. This is a significant issue for companies like this large European telecommunications company, which maintains about 25 petabytes of data.

Previously 90 percent of the company’s SAN data was stored on Tier 1 storage devices. The remainder was placed on Tier 2 devices. The company’s storage architecture team was constantly challenged to confirm that they were providing the right storage for the right needs. Often, by default, staff placed data on high-level storage systems, which was very expensive.

This is why as the company’s storage managers implemented a virtualized storage environment using IBM® System Storage® SAN Volume Controller, they sought greater insight into how storage systems were being used so they could optimize data placement.

Improving storage allocation
The IBM team listened to the company’s requirements and, with assistance of the IBM Competence Center in Montpellier, France, developed the Storage Tiering Activity Reporter¹ (STAR) to help monitor the capacity and performance of magnetic storage devices and virtual disks and optimize data placement decisions.

As part of IBM STAR, IBM Tivoli® Storage Productivity Center collects and analyzes statistics from IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller including input/output (I/O) per second, storage space capacity and I/O response times (in milliseconds). This Integrated Service Management solution for the data center provides the company’s storage operators with early warnings of potential performance and capacity issues based on predefined thresholds (e.g., if storage space capacity reaches 95 percent or write I/O response times exceeds 50 percent of targets). With greater visibility into how data is used and actual infrastructure load, operators can make better decisions regarding storage tiering allocation for initial and ongoing data placement.

Early results proved to be quite successful. Migration of data is optimized and operators have the information they need to correctly manage data placement and better utilize storage capacity. Only 20 percent of data was kept on Tier 1 devices; 50 percent was maintained on Tier 2 devices; and 30 percent could be moved to less expensive Tier 3 storage arrays.

Greater agility and reduced costs
How has this visibility helped this telecommunication provider? The main benefit has been cost savings by reducing capital expenses, decreasing energy consumption by 25-50 percent, and avoiding unnecessary investment in new high-level storage arrays.

In addition, the SAN infrastructure virtualization project, supported by IBM Global Technology Services staff, drastically increased storage operation agility. The time to deliver storage for applications was reduced from one month to one day and staff can decommission a storage array in only a few weeks instead of multiple months, without going through the change process and stopping applications.

For More Information
To learn more about IBM storage solutions, please contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website: ibm.com/tivoli

You can get even more out of Tivoli software by participating in independently run Tivoli User Groups around the world. Learn about opportunities near you at: www.tivoli-ug.org

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