Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Industry / Infotech/  Sify boosts speed, performance with flash storage
BackBack

Sify boosts speed, performance with flash storage

The IT firm understood that the growing demands of consumers and market can only be met by a storage solution that is cost-effective with efficient capacity and performance

IaaS offers fundamental components of IT infrastructure such as computing power, storage, network, security, data protection and analytics. Photo: iStockPhotoPremium
IaaS offers fundamental components of IT infrastructure such as computing power, storage, network, security, data protection and analytics. Photo: iStockPhoto

Late last year, executives at Chennai-based Sify Technologies Ltd that offers infrastructure as a service (IaaS) began noticing a marked lowering of performance and efficiency in their storage infrastructure.

IaaS offers fundamental components of IT infrastructure such as computing power, storage, network, security, data protection and analytics, and comes in all three variants including public, private and hybrid cloud.

As Sify’s executives began investigating the reasons for the decline in performance, they realized that more of their clients were transitioning from just testing cloud services to actually deploying business-critical applications, which necessitated a rapid shift in their business infrastructure requirements.

The bigger challenge came with companies increasingly adopting hybrid cloud (a mix of on-premise or the so-called private cloud, and online or the so-called public cloud) deployments. As a result, there was a considerable change in the nature of workload requirements—from small capacities to extremely high capacities and high IOPS (input/output operations per second) in the cloud.

Sify realized the need to strengthen its storage infrastructure to meet the challenges posed by these factors, especially as more and more workloads get ported to the cloud.

The company at first consolidated its storage landscape with Hitachi storage infrastructure. However, gaps were still visible while servicing business-critical high IOPS with a small data footprint. This pushed Sify to opt for a large number of spindles or solid-state disks (SSDs).

However, these were low on disk space and hence proved to be an indirect liability on the company’s data centre’s resources—costs, space and power. Moreover, the increasing volume of SSDs had an adverse impact on the storage controller performance.

Sify was quick to understand that the growing demands of consumers and market can only be met by a storage solution that is not only cost-effective, but also a perfect blend of capacity and performance.

From Sify’s point of view, an important requirement for the new storage solution was that it should be able to cater to the needs of the new segment of high-IOPS clients. The firm also wanted to make the most of its existing storage infrastructure and utilize existing software features such as storage tiering, cloning and replication.

At the same time, it was not keen on investing in any storage infrastructure solution that warranted additional skill sets or management effort.

Sify’s business head for cloud and managed services, Adarsh Singh, explained, “Sify started looking for definite, convincing and cost-effective solutions. From our point of view, the potential storage solution was to be scalable, and to be able to support the growth and evolving needs of both Sify as well as its customers."

As the cloud services marketplace is very cost-sensitive, Sify was only interested in solutions that would help the company win lucrative deals. For example, Sify abstained from investing in a separate all-flash array. It realized that an all-flash array would not fit in perfectly with the existing storage infrastructure, which is seamlessly integrated with its cloud stack. A new array would also mean investment in new controllers and software, which inadvertently would require more management efforts and funds.

It was then that Hitachi Data Systems proposed the Hitachi Accelerated Flash (HAF) to help Sify meet the requirements of high-IOPS and small data-footprint clients. Flash storage is extremely fast and greatly reliable. The all-electronic storage device can retain information even when the power is off.

HAF, for Sify, simply meant an upgrade to its existing storage infrastructure—all the software features such as dynamic tiering and replication were extended to the upgraded disks as well. The flash enclosure, too, needs very little data centre space and power to support it. More importantly, there was absolutely no downtime required for installation and configuration of the HAF flash enclosure and drives.

“HDS GSS (Hitachi Data Systems Global Services Solutions) carried out the implementation in a seamless fashion and in a very short span. The best part is that we needed no additional skill enhancement as the new flash modules are managed using the existing tools. We couldn’t have asked for more," said Ravi Maguluri, senior vice-president for cloud initiatives at Sify.

The solution comprised a storage drive enclosure with HAF flash module drives (FMDs). These are larger than traditional solid-state drives and deliver three-four times better IOPS. It is also more space and power efficient.

The other benefit is that with the implementation of FMDs, Sify can now offer cloud services to a diversified set of customers. The new storage solutions have helped Sify achieve greater customer satisfaction, boost sales, control costs, and monitor and manage storage tasks without additional efforts or tools.

“New business models and renewed competition is forcing organizations of all sizes to revisit their business strategy," said Gaurav Sharma, research manager of enterprise computing at IDC India, a research firm.

“A key component of this is the structured and unstructured data that needs to be analysed across departments to contribute to this strategy, marketing programmes, product positioning and customer delight. This is pushing organizations to revisit their storage architectures to accommodate more efficient technologies, hybrid arrays and storage management tools to be able to support this transition," added Sharma.

Sify product manager for cloud and managed services, Jaiprakash Pherwani, expressed satisfaction over HDS providing the firm “with first-class storage solutions that will help us stay competitive in our business offerings".

This article is in association with cxotoday.com

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sohini Bagchi
"Sohini Bagchi is a senior assistant editor with TechCircle with over 15 years of experience in technology journalism. She has previously worked with IDG Media and Trivone Digital Services. Sohini is also a published author of fiction and non-fiction books. Her debut novel 'Road to Cherry Hills' enjoyed critical acclaim worldwide. Her second book 'Techtonic Shift' traces the history and evolution of computers and the Internet. Sohini has a masters degree in communications from Manipal Institute of Communication, Karnataka. She is trained in Karate and enjoys blogging and stargazing when she is not working. "
Catch all the Industry News, Banking News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 08 Oct 2015, 11:59 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App