data analytics ICT
relevant to Big Data environments – these cover deduplication, performance and archiving as follows:
1. If you can reduce the amount of data stored, everything else seems to get better, and this is especially true in Big Data environments. Compression and deduplication are two examples of this strategy, but applying these technologies to databases can be more complicated than with file data. One company that has tackled this problem is RainStor. It has developed big data technology that provides this data reduction in a structured environment. It can deduplicate and store large sections of a database, providing up to 40 to 1 reduction in the process. It can then allow users to search this compressed database without rehydrating the data.
2. In the area of data performance, GridIron has developed a block-based cache appliance that leverages flash and DRAM to provide application acceleration up to 10 times in high performance environments. Compared with traditional caching methods, which use file system metadata to make caching decisions, GridIron creates a ‘map’ of billions of data blocks on the back-end storage. This enables it to run predictive analysis on the data space and place blocks into cache before they are needed.
3. In Big Data archiving, the challenges can be managing the file system environment and scaling it to accommodate very large numbers of files. Qunatum’s StorNext is a heterogeneous SAN file system that provides high speed shared access among Linux, Mac, Unix and Windows client servers on a SAN. In addition, a SAN gateway server can provide high performance access to LAN clients. Also part of StorNext is the Storage Manager, a policy based archive engine that moves files among disk storage tiers and, if implemented, a tape archive.
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Moving on to S3, how does the company support organizations looking to implement some kind of Big Data project?
S3 plays a significant role in the implementation of Big Data technologies - we have insight, a deep level of industry expertise and an extensive knowledge of integrating specific vendor’s solution with other sector-specific tools. This enables us to cater to the individual needs of both SME and Enterprise customers and help them understand the benefits and pitfalls of Big Data, the impacts of business intelligence and eliminate the need for multiple expensive solutions. We interact with our customers on a daily basis to ensure we understand their requirements better than the vendors themselves - we can also provide bespoke vertical solutions, training and other services to differentiate our offering from our competitors.
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Does S3 work with specific vendors to provide Big Data stacks, or will the company put together a best of breed solution regardless of the vendors involved?
S3’s approach is to become your trusted advisor of choice – we
do this by recommending what we believe to be the best solution fit based on the constraints and parameters given to us by the customer. We work with only best of breed vendors and are fiercely independent in our recommendations – honesty and integrity is the cornerstone of our ethos to creating strong customer trust and hopefully loyalty.
environment in terms of support/service? Q A
We provide a full multi-vendor support service to our customers - this is provided free of charge based on a first line support model on a 9-5 basis throughout the working week. We will manage the fault call with the vendor and, where we can, use our own in-house skills and expertise to sort the problem – our current statistics show we close 80% of support calls handled through ourselves without reference to the vendor. Customers can enhance the support cover offered to include out of hours times, 24 x 7 cover, second and third line support as and when required.
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What success has S3 had to date in terms of providing end users with Big Data solutions?
S3 is EMC’s largest provider of Isilon solutions across EMEA.
We have installed and manage over 40 petabytes of Big Data systems across a wide variety of verticals across several continents. We are currently hosting a Big Data analytics event on Tuesday 13 May 2014 at the Brewers Hall, London – if you would like to know more about this event, data analytics or big data generally then please register to attend the event on
www.s3.co.uk/analytics
In conclusion, what are the main points for end users to consider when evaluating data analytics solutions?
For many users the key issues include flexibility, speed, ease
of use and cost. It’s not clear whether any single vendor product or service can offer all of these capabilities at the moment and so it is essential that any end user takes appropriate professional advice from an expert in the Big Data field, such as S3.
We are, however, still in the early days of the Big Data analytics movement and with rapidly emerging technologies tomorrow is another day…… and what of the old guard vendors? Sure some of those big-name companies have been followers.
Some even have software distributions and have added important capabilities to existing products. But are their hearts really in it? In some cases you get the impression they are simply window dressing.
There are vested interests – namely license revenues – in sticking with the status quo – so you don’t just see them out there aggressively selling something that just might displace their cash cows. However, as we’ve seen many times before, acquisitions can suddenly change these landscapes very quickly ...
May 2014 I
www.dcsuk.info 39 How does S3 support a multi-vendor Big Data
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