storage ICT QHow did the relationship with S3 come about?
A S3 is well established as the UK’s leading specialist data storage integrator and coupled with their VMware Enterprise Partner status it was an easy decision to approach them as a prospective partner. We are pleased that after extensive commercial and technical qualification over several months, S3 has agreed sign up to Tintri’s channel programme in the UK.
QWhat is it about the Tintri technology and products that made you want to add them to your portfolio?
A GK: As your readers know S3 has a track record of successfully picking the right technology “start ups” and helping take them to
market in the UK. This is fundamental to our dual strategy of having mainstream vendor relationships as well as innovative and cutting edge “start up” relationships. We believe that by taking this approach we can offer our customers the maximum value when designing and building datacentre solutions.
Virtualisation in the datacentre has historically been confined to Tier 2 applications where SLAs aren’t as stringent. Until vendors and intergrators like S3 can offer solutions that can guarantee performance, uptime and end to end reporting customers will always be nervous about migrating Tier 1 applications to a virtual environment.
Tintri helps overcome this by being unique in the market by providing “VMware Storage”. Tintri utilises SSD to overcome performance challenges with large virtual environments but more importantly being “VMware aware” means their storage technology can track IOPs to the “C Drive” VMDK and also to the vSphere swap VMDK. This means that Tintri can help storage admins when it comes to troubleshooting by providing end to end visibility.
QHow do you see them meeting the needs of your customers?
A GK: S3’s customers are increasingly being driven by application SLAs and Quality of Service (Qos). With the rise in virtualisation and the use of shared resources being able to offer such reassurances whilst applications and I/O fight for processing power, network bandwidth and storage becomes challenging.
Tintri offers our customers a unique storage infrastructure specifically for the virtual environment that helps both the business and IT gain a better visibility of their infrastructure.
QMore generally, how do you see the storage landscape developing over 2012?
A GK: I think 2012 will be an interesting year for the data storage market for the following four reasons:
Mergers and Acquisitions: Tier 1 vendors such as EMC, HP and Dell continuing to acquire in an attempt to offer end to end solutions
What is data really worth? “Big Data” will see a shift in the way we define business value derived from the terabytes and petabytes of data our customers manage. This will create a shift in our traditional approach to data storage and analysis towards technologies such as “scale out” NAS and Hadoop.
Cloud Appliances: There has been a rise in cloud appliances that offer a cost effective and simple way of sending data to the cloud. Whether this is primary, back up or DR data these type of hybrid solutions and appliances offer a more reassuring way of writing to cloud storage service providers.
SSD vs HDD: Whilst the fallout from last year’s Thai floods continues to delay the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) supply chain, sales of Solid State Disks (SSD) have risen as a result. Flash-based memory is still an expensive option but solid-state disks are increasingly becoming the foundation of most emerging data storage start ups.
QAnd do you see plenty of opportunities for S3?
A GK: S3 is always at the forefront of data storage and information management solutions. Our unique position in the market means we are not biased towards any one vendor. This has always allowed us to offer a true consultative approach towards our customers and their datacentre requirements.
S3 has never been opportunity constrained our focus is on ensuring we continue to stay ahead of our peers by picking the right technologies and maintaining the highest levels of technical accreditations and skills.
Virtualisation in the datacentre has historically been confined to Tier 2 applications where SLAs aren’t as stringent. Until vendors and intergrators like S3 can offer solutions that can guarantee performance, uptime and end to end reporting customers will always be nervous about migrating Tier 1 applications to a virtual environment
26
www.dcsuk.info I May 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52