Efficiency in today’s data centers can be measured not only by power consumption, but also by capacity, space, reliability, and return on investment.
The Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AREC) at the University of Maryland-College Park took all of these factors into consideration when it chose a new storage solution from GreenBytes, Inc. that would improve latency (response speed) at for its state-of-the-art on-campus computer facilities.
AREC— a world-class academic unit specializing in the broad issues of the economics of agricultural, environmental and natural resources— provides a 15-seat computer lab for the exclusive use of graduate students and another 25-seat lab for classes, presentations and research. In addition, faculty and graduate students can access AREC databases from their office and home computers.
The labs are equipped with Pano Zero Client from Redwood City, California-based Pano Logic (News - Alert): desktop computing hardware that conserves electricity, using as little as 5 percent of the energy consumed by even an Energy Star-certified desktop PC.
Pano endpoints are referred to as "zero clients" because, unlike traditional thin (or slim) clients, they have no central processing unit (CPU), no memory, no operating system, no drivers, no software and no moving parts. They simply connect peripheral input-output (I/O) devices – a keyboard, mouse, video graphics array (VGA) display, and audio output – along with other USB peripherals to a virtualized Microsoft Windows desktop machine running on a hypervisor server in the data center.
However, with the ever-increasing number of virtual desktops joining its network, AREC recently had been experiencing latency (response speed) issues. The department needed to find a storage solution that would:
After conducting a search, the department selected GreenBytes (News - Alert), Inc., a four-year-old Ashaway, Rhode Island-based company that specializes in deduplication data storage solutions, to upgrade its virtual storage environment and provide the IOPS required for their evolving storage infrastructure. The university was provided with enterprise-scale storage features and performance, enabling AREC to:
- Reduce latency,
- Increase provisioning,
- Deduplicate a growing number of virtual desktop images, and
- Save significant space with storage server consolidation.
“When we started looking into a new storage solution, we knew that we needed enterprise-scale features, such as deduplication and compression—but also a solution that could be easily expandable, easy to manage, and would give us the biggest bang for our buck,” said Jeff Cunningham, director of Information Systems, University of Maryland AREC Department. “With larger and larger data sets, our storage needs were growing exponentially, and we needed a far more efficient and better-performing solution.”
AREC deployed a GreenBytes with 12 TB of RAW storage, SSD for read/write cache, a pool of ten striped and mirrored disks and two hot spares. In a highly competitive marketplace, the University decided to purchase the GreenBytes GB-2000 because it offered a unique hybrid storage architecture (HSA) that combined higher performance via the SSD (solid state drive) read and write cache, with less costly SATA (serial advanced technology attachment) drives.
“I did consider other alternatives, but the price/performance and expandability of the GB-2000 made it stand out, said Cunningham. “The GB-2000 has provided the IOPS that our dynamic storage infrastructure was demanding, and the latency issues I was seeing prior to implementing the GB-2000 have been resolved.”
The university got the enterprise-scale storage features and performance that it needed, enabling AREC to provision and deduplicate a growing number of virtual desktop images, saving significant storage space while adding additional efficiencies.
“I was previously using two iSCSI SANS primarily for my server and desktop virtual machines and user data; all of those functions have now been consolidated onto the one GB-2000 that is easier to manage,” said Cunningham. “The GB-2000 has provided me with an affordable, easy to manage, high-performance iSCSI SAN with high-end features that accommodates a diverse computing environment.”
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Cheryl Kaften is an accomplished communicator who has written for consumer and corporate audiences. She has worked extensively for MasterCard (News - Alert) Worldwide, Philip Morris USA (Altria), and KPMG, and has consulted for Estee Lauder and the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspapers. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
