EMC’s survey of over 800 organisations across the globe identified ‘managing storage growth’ as the number one pain point of respondents. Poorly performing systems cause more headaches than a messy filing cabinet, eating up valuable resources and stalling productivity.
Yet enterprises are spoilt for choice when it comes to contemporary storage. The competition between cloud, disk, flash and hybrid storage vendors is heating up, with 451 Research identifying hybrid storage solutions as the leading preference among businesses.
So what is hybrid storage?
Today’s storage providers are now blending the performance powers of flash and disk into hybrid storage systems with impressive capabilities. Wise organisations are using them to accelerate the performance of critical business applications and enhance efficiency - without breaking the bank.
What is Nimble Storage?
Nimble Storage’s Adaptive Flash platform is based on CASL architecture and InfoSight.
CASL architecutre allows Nimble Storage to leverage the unique properties of flash and disk to deliver high performance and capacity, while InfoSight allows organisations to efficiently manage and monitor their storage systems from the cloud.
Nimble Storage received an award from Modern Infrastructure readers for having the top hybrid flash storage product on the market in 2013, with readers finding it “a great addition to their data centers, providing the right levels of performance and capacity and extensive software features, all at a reasonable cost.”
Swift, seamless access to data is critical for productivity. Nimble Storage provides enterprises with a system that improves operations and removes productivity roadblocks. It protects businesses from the challenges of downtime and makes storage management effortless.
Nimble Storage is famous for its ability to leverage the high performance of flash without compromising capacity and cost.
What are the benefits of Nimble Storage?
Increased Efficiency
Slow, cumbersome storage systems can hamstring a workforce. Nimble Storage’s hybrid solutions deliver accelerated read and write operations and dramatically reduce capacity, boosting daily productivity.
A great deal of time is lost waiting for lousy storage systems to read or write files. Nimble Storage offers accelerated read operations and write operations, which are up to 100 times faster than traditional disk systems. This streamlines business processes, saving organisations time and money.
Nimble Storage’s in-line compression ensures the system won’t get overwhelmed and keeps capacity at a bare minimum. Traditional storage solutions use post-processed compression, which means a scheduled process runs at off-peak hours to compress data on the storage array. In contrast, Nimble Storage compresses all data in real time, offering between 30-75% capacity savings, depending on the workload.
For example, on the left of the dashboard, organisations can view a breakdown of space saving, due to in-line compression.
Organisations don’t have to trade performance for greater capacity and lower costs. Nimble’s solution provides incredible performance and reduced capacity and allows business owners to maximise their workforce productivity.
Reliable Data Protection
A successful enterprise can’t afford to lose access to critical data. Nimble Storage has incredible capabilities preventing downtime, including powerful backup and recovery technologies and its support model, InfoSight.
Unplanned downtime, outages and failures can have a significant legal and financial impact, as well as intangible costs like customer loyalty and reputation. Nimble Storage uses automated, point-in-time snapshots to protect data, diminishing the possibility of downtime.
The snapshots occupy minimal space, allowing for frequent, instant backups and delivering excellent Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs). Nimble can backup and restore data in minutes and enables quick failover for continuous operation, should a disaster occur.
Previously named Proactive Wellness, InfoSight provides frequent heartbeats and immediate visibility into error conditions, sometimes resolving issues before business owners have even initiated contact. Issues are remotely diagnosed and remediated before they manifest as downtime and disrupt the enterprise.
Enterprises investing in this system will also be protected by Nimble’s 99.999 availability, the gold standard for system uptime. Nimble Storage gives organisations a distinct advantage over their competitors, equipping them with advanced backup technology, proactive monitoring and remarkable uptime.
Easy Storage Management
Data management pains can cripple any enterprise. Nimble Storage uses InfoSight to reduce storage management headaches, simplifying and integrating storage-administration tasks to ensure optimal organisational performance.
Storage managers have a plethora of responsibilities, including alerting, forecasting, maintenance and support assessment. Nimble’s InfoSight portal is built on powerful deep data analytics technologies, analysing millions of data points every day to deliver complete insights into overall storage health.
The InfoSight portal consolidates and presents complex information - including assets, capacity and performance - in graphical form. For example, it monitors historical capacity increases and indicates when an array is nearing capacity where performance may be affected.
Time-consuming data collation, cross-referencing and long meetings becomes a thing of the past. Nimble Storage’s uncomplicated storage management assures the ongoing health of the enterprise.
What are the challenges of Nimble Storage?
- Unessential alerts are occasionally generated. For example, when one oftwo arrays suffers a failed power supply and controller, alerts for both arrays may be generated. In order to avoid unnecessary effort, where possible, always check on the issue before following Nimble’s recommendations.
- Nimble Storage can be costly for smaller organisations. However, remember to calculate the financial impact of time and effort saved, as well as price. When cost isn’t a primary deciding factor, Nimble’s storage solutions are an excellent choice for enterprises. The great performance, ease of use and excellent support are well worth the cost.
How do I implement Nimble Storage?
- Implementing a new storage solution doesn’t have to be arduous. In order to obtain a cost-effective solution, work with your IT personnel to determine specific capacity and performance requirements.
- Segment data into what needs to be accessed frequently and swiftly and what data can be archived.
- Check that your internet connection has sufficient bandwidth to enable effective InfoSight management.
- Request a demo by contacting R & G Technologies.
- Once you’ve purchased a Nimble Storage solution, training is a top priority. All too often, technical innovations aren’t fully integrated into staff routine. Use video, PowerPoint, posters and any means necessary to keep staff informed and educated. Choose key leaders to train other staff members, ensuring no employee is missed.
A powerful storage solution can transform the way an organisation operates. Nimble Storage can reduce time wastage, increase uptime and streamline data management, leading enterprises to a more productive future. Every technology comes with its own set of benefits and challenges, yet Nimble Storage offers an overwhelming amount of positive potential for organisations looking for a progressive storage solution.