Storage Solutions:  

Storage Area Network (SAN)

Storage is the backbone of any technology infrastructure. It's importance is often overlooked and consequently many companies find themselves backed into a corner when it comes to performance, scalability and upgrades. At Par 4 Technology Group, we take these and many other factors into account when making storage recommendations to our clients. We do our best to educate clients and prospects considering storage alternatives to ensure they make the best decision.  

FC versus IP:

One area of common misconception in storage area networking is that Fiber Channel is a superior and more reliable platform than IP. This is completely inaccurate on several levels. Many of the new storage vendors are iSCSI only and there is good reason for this. Par 4 has completely embraced IP SAN storage and we have built our storage practice largely around the migration from FC to IP SAN. FC to IP SAN migration is not something restricted to the mid market; savvy Enterprise clients are moving in this direction as well. The storage products we resell are a reflection of our belief in IP SAN storage.

Storage Virtualization:

Storage Virtualization is a term being thrown around a lot today. However, it should be understood that there are many forms of storage virtualization. At it's root, virtualization should provide the ability to dynamically provision and grow storage volumes and should allow for zero downtime upgrades and maintenance (similar to what VMware does for servers). However, there are variations in how "virtualization" can be interpreted (e.g. does it imply hardware agnostic?). You should decide what you want the virtualization to provide you with before deciding on what type of storage virtualization solution to go with.Please visit our page on Storage Virtualization to learn more.

IP SAN Migration

While IP SAN storage (a.k.a. iSCSI) is significantly less complicated than Fiber Channel storage, it still requires careful planning and attention to detail. Any migration project, be it from internal / DAS storage or from a FC array, has it's own complexities.  

Storage Virtualization    

For most companies, the need to scale and upgrade the backend storage infrastructure with no disruption to the business has become a requirement. With traditional storage infrastructures this is simply not possible. In fact, most traditional vendors will not only require downtime but will also employ sales tactics that require more frequent upgrades.

Additionally, unplanned downtime has also become unacceptable for many companies. Some have gone to great lengths (and great expense) to ensure critical applications and data are protected in the face of various disaster scenarios. With traditional storage solutions, this is a very difficult and costly venture.  

With storage virtualization, these pains are alleviated Storage virtualization will enable you to:  

  • Map existing storage volumes through a virtualization platform, allowing for seemless storage upgrades and migrations. 
  • Decomission older storage hardware with zero downtime
  • Upgrade any component in the storage path (virtualization nodes, switches, storage hardware) with zero downtime
  •  Migrate storage volumes between various storage platforms and vendors 
  • Create high availability mirrors across different storage types 
  • Asynchronously replicate storage between sites with different storage platforms

There are many types of storage solutions on the market today. It's worth leveraging our knowledge and experience before embarking on a solution. Please call us today to set up a free consultation.