RACKSPACE MANAGED HOSTING
- 1. SAN SUCCESS STORY RACKSPACE MANAGED HOSTING STORAGE AREA Bolstering a SAN for a New NETWORK Generation of Growth EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Founded on the principle that technology over 50 percent year-to-year growth. is only as good as its implementation, However, as the division grew, Rackspace Technology Challenge Rackspace Managed Hosting has thrived recognized the opportunity to enhance Boost Storage Area Network (SAN) capacity by tailoring its Web hosting solutions its SAN to better serve its customers. By to support a rapidly growing managed to the unique needs of its customers. increasing the number of available ports backup and storage services division while Since opening its first data center in San of its SAN switches, Rackspace reasoned streamlining administration of storage and Antonio, Texas, in 1998, the company has that it could more easily and cost-effectively backup SANs transformed itself into one of the Internet’s add storage and backup devices, as well as biggest successes, becoming one of its leverage higher-speed connections to link Solution industry’s fastest-growing enterprises. customers to their hosted data. • Brocade® 48000 Directors Through the years, Rackspace has launched In addition, Rackspace wanted to • Brocade 4900 Switches four new data centers in the U.S. and four consolidate and simplify the management • Brocade 4100 Switches in the United Kingdom. In addition, the of its backup and storage services, reducing • Brocade Fabric Manager company has added a variety of new service administration time and costs while offerings to fulfill the unique business increasing reliability. The company realized • Brocade Services requirements of its diverse clientele, that newer energy-efficient storage solutions Benefits including a new Managed Backup and would lower its power consumption and • Improved scalability to quickly add Storage Division introduced in 2001. costs for existing and additional equipment. storage and backup devices with Rackspace achieved all of these objectives increased ports to provision and support SAN UPDATES TO SUPPORT GROWTH by revamping its SAN with a scalable, a rapidly growing customer base The new division—which added managed reliable solution based on Brocade 48000 • Centralized management to reduce backup and data storage services to Directors, Brocade 4900 Switches, and the time and cost needed to perform Rackspace’s diverse offerings—became an Brocade 4100 Switches. The Managed provisioning, monitoring, and instant success, enhancing the company’s Backup and Storage Division also administration tasks • 50 percent lower power consumption
- 2. SAN SUCCESS STORY implemented Brocade Fabric Manager, a to connect customers to storage and single-point SAN management platform backup services faster and more reliably. WHY BROCADE designed for managing multiple Brocade Features such as enhanced Brocade • Robust feature set with 4 Gbit/sec switches and fabrics in real time. Although Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking (which performance and “pay-as-you-grow” Rackspace IT staff ably deployed the new combines up to eight 4 Gbit/sec ports scalability with Ports on Demand equipment, they relied on Brocade Services between switches into a single, logical high- capabilities to ensure that the new platforms were speed trunk running at up to 32 Gbit/sec) configured for optimal performance. improve system throughput and availability. • Single, intuitive solution for managing Exchange-based Dynamic Path Selection multiple SAN switches, directors, and “The decision to use Brocade was easy,” fabrics (DPS) optimizes fabric-wide performance says Chad Smykay, the Rackspace storage and load balancing by automatically • Energy-efficient solutions that reduce engineer who performed the installation. routing data to the most efficient available power consumption and associated costs “Their systems perform so reliably that path in the fabric. This minimizes service once you set them, you almost forget degradation and helps ensure fast delivery they’re there. Fabric Manager simplifies of data. performance monitoring. Smykay explains, management and saves us time and costs.” In addition, Brocade 4 Gbit/sec SAN directors “Fabric Manager helps us prevent problems “Before,” Smykay adds, “we spent a lot of before they affect our systems, which are rated to be—and have been tested time performing routine maintenance on translates to higher reliability and improved as—the most power-efficient SAN directors in each individual SAN switch. Now, we can availability for our customers.” the market, resulting in significant electricity do monitoring, troubleshooting, and apply savings and improved cooling efficiency. “The Brocade solution has given the global changes and firmware upgrades from Smykay estimates that the division’s Rackspace Managed Backup and Storage a central Fabric Manager console. Perhaps directors operate with 50 percent less power Division the infrastructure to support a new most importantly, the Brocade solution will than the SAN platforms they replaced. “The generation of growth, while providing the enable us to easily provision more switches power consumption of Brocade directors and management tools necessary to manage within fabrics more quickly and efficiently.” switches has always been excellent, and it’s our evolving customer base effectively,” always improving,” Smykay notes. “When concludes Smykay. “As the world’s fastest- INDUSTRY-LEADING DIRECTORS you have thousands of storage and backup growing managed hosting providers, At the center of the SAN, the Brocade clients, even a dollar a day savings per device our success depends on harnessing 48000 Directors scale non-disruptively from can quickly add up.” technologies that help us sustain our 32 to as many as 384 concurrently active customer service levels. Brocade solutions 4 Gbit/sec full-duplex ports in a single REDUCED ADMINISTRATION do that efficiently and are providing us with domain, enabling Rackspace to support LOWERS COSTS an outstanding return on our investment.” thousands of new devices and customers. Rackspace is also reducing administrative Because the directors are not highly over- For more information, visit www.brocade.com. costs thanks to Fabric Manager. The subscribed, they can provide more total solution lets Rackspace perform end- bandwidth than competitive offerings. The to-end SAN management tasks across Brocade 4900 and 4100 Switches provide multiple devices in a single operation, and reliable 4 Gbit/sec performance and it optimizes fabric utilization and capacity scale easily through the Ports on Demand planning through simplified analysis and capability used throughout the Brocade switch family. Moreover, the directors enable Rackspace Corporate Headquarters European Headquarters Asia Pacific Headquarters San Jose, CA USA Geneva, Switzerland Singapore T: (408) 333-8000 T: +41 22 799 56 40 T: +65-6538-4700 info@brocade.com emea-info@brocade.com apac-info@brocade.com © 2007 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 06/07 GA-SS-1068-00 Brocade, the Brocade B-weave logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, Secure Fabric OS, SilkWorm, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol and Tapestry are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners. 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