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Data Storage - Call PBM IT Solutions at (888) 233-6471Q. What is a data center? A. A data center is a computer facility designed for continuous use by several users, and well equipped with hardware, software, peripherals, power conditioning and backup, communication equipment, security systems, etc. Power continues to lead as a concern for data center operations. Data centers are designed to a specific power density - watts per square foot - with a typical cabinet of equipment occupying 14 sq. ft. of space. Energy costs are rising for most data centers. Companies should employ tools and techniques to manage the energy cost curve. Operating system virtualization is the use of software to allow a piece of hardware to run multiple operating system images at the same time. Storage virtualization is the pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device that is managed from a central console. Storage virtualization is commonly used in storage area networks (SANs). Virtualization was first introduced in the 1960s by IBM to boost utilization of large, expensive mainframe systems by partitioning them into logical, separate virtual machines that could run multiple applications and processes at the same time. In the 1980s and 1990s, this centrally shared mainframe model gave way to a distributed, client-server computing model, in which many low-cost x86 servers and desktops independently run specific applications. To qualify as a true enterprise solution, a storage management system must be able to scale across the entire enterprise. This means it must be able to handle multiple servers spread across wide geographical areas. The solution should further leverage technologies such as clustering and load balancing to support hundreds or even thousands of client computers. It also must support various network infrastructures and firewall configurations. With the Cisco UCS M71KR-E and M71KR-Q adapters, a maximum of two adapters are presented to the VMware ESX hypervisor running on the blade. Each of these adapters can be defined within the Cisco Unified Computing System as connected to an individual fabric interconnect and, optionally, enabling a failover to the other. This fabric failover enables a model in which the virtual machine data can use one path within the Cisco Unified Computing System by default, and all other connections can go on the other path. A green data center is a repository for the storage, management, and dissemination of data in which the mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact. High availability data systems optimize the reliability of data storage systems by providing redundancy only of critical components to eliminate single points of failure. A single point of failure occurs when the failure of a single component of a system causes the entire system to cease operating, resulting in the potential loss of data. Therefore, one goal in designing a high availability data storage system is to provide a satisfactory level of reliability while keeping the cost of the system in check. The Cisco Nexus 5010 Switch foundation is built upon High-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Data Center Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Virtual-machine-optimized networking. |
