IBM Data Center Networking: Planning for Virtualization and Cloud Computing

IBM Data Center Networking: Planning for Virtualization and Cloud Computing

Author: Michele Girola

Publisher: IBM Redbooks

Published: 2011-05-09

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0738435392

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The enterprise data center has evolved dramatically in recent years. It has moved from a model that placed multiple data centers closer to users to a more centralized dynamic model. The factors influencing this evolution are varied but can mostly be attributed to regulatory, service level improvement, cost savings, and manageability. Multiple legal issues regarding the security of data housed in the data center have placed security requirements at the forefront of data center architecture. As the cost to operate data centers has increased, architectures have moved towards consolidation of servers and applications in order to better utilize assets and reduce "server sprawl." The more diverse and distributed the data center environment becomes, the more manageability becomes an issue. These factors have led to a trend of data center consolidation and resources on demand using technologies such as virtualization, higher WAN bandwidth technologies, and newer management technologies. The intended audience of this book is network architects and network administrators. In this IBM® Redbooks® publication we discuss the following topics: The current state of the data center network The business drivers making the case for change The unique capabilities and network requirements of system platforms The impact of server and storage consolidation on the data center network The functional overview of the main data center network virtualization and consolidation technologies The new data center network design landscape


IBM SmartCloud: Building a Cloud Enabled Data Center

IBM SmartCloud: Building a Cloud Enabled Data Center

Author: Pietro Iannucci

Publisher: IBM Redbooks

Published: 2013-05-21

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 0738438049

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Organizations are looking for ways to get more out of their already strained IT infrastructure as they face new technological and economic pressures. They are also trying to satisfy a broad set of users (internal and external to the enterprise) who demand improvements in their quality of service (QoS), regardless of increases in the number of users and applications. Cloud computing offers attractive opportunities to reduce costs, accelerate development, and increase the flexibility of the IT infrastructure, applications, and services. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the typical starting point for most organizations when moving to a cloud computing environment. IaaS can be used for the delivery of resources such as compute, storage, and network services through a self-service portal. With IaaS, IT services are delivered as a subscription service, eliminating up-front costs and driving down ongoing support costs. IBM® has defined the Cloud Computing Reference Architecture (CCRA) based on years of experience of working with customers who have implemented cloud-computing solutions. The IBM CCRA is a blueprint or guide for architecting cloud-computing implementations. This IBM RedguideTM publication highlights the Cloud Enabled Data Center adoption pattern and describes how you can use it to define an IaaS solution. This guide is intended for chief technology officers, data center architects, IT architects, and application architects who want to understand the cloud-computing infrastructure necessary to support their applications and services by using an IaaS solution. It explains the technical and business benefits of a Cloud Enabled Data Center solution. It introduces a Cloud Enabled Data Center maturity model where each maturity level corresponds to an increase in the degree of automation and the cloud-computing capabilities that are available. In addition, this guide describes the architectural framework provided by the IBM CCRA and explains details about the Cloud Enabled Data Center adoption pattern.


IBM Tivoli Storage Manager as a Data Protection Solution

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager as a Data Protection Solution

Author: Larry Coyne

Publisher: IBM Redbooks

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0738439983

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When you hear IBM® Tivoli® Storage Manager, the first thing that you typically think of is data backup. Tivoli Storage Manager is the premier storage management solution for mixed platform environments. Businesses face a tidal wave of information and data that seems to increase daily. The ability to successfully and efficiently manage information and data has become imperative. The Tivoli Storage Manager family of products helps businesses successfully gain better control and efficiently manage the information tidal wave through significant enhancements in multiple facets of data protection. Tivoli Storage Manager is a highly scalable and available data protection solution. It takes data protection scalability to the next level with a relational database, which is based on IBM DB2® technology. Greater availability is delivered through enhancements such as online, automated database reorganization. This IBM Redbooks® publication describes the evolving set of data-protection challenges and how capabilities in Tivoli Storage Manager can best be used to address those challenges. This book is more than merely a description of new and changed functions in Tivoli Storage Manager; it is a guide to use for your overall data protection solution.


Implementing IBM Software Defined Network for Virtual Environments

Implementing IBM Software Defined Network for Virtual Environments

Author: Sangam Racherla

Publisher: IBM Redbooks

Published: 2014-09-04

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0738439657

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This IBM® Redbooks® publication shows how to integrate IBM Software Defined Network for Virtual Environments (IBM SDN VE) seamlessly within a new or existing data center. This book is aimed at pre- and post-sales support, targeting network administrators and other technical professionals that want to get an overview of this new and exciting technology, and see how it fits into the overall vision of a truly Software Defined Environment. It shows you all of the steps that are required to design, install, maintain, and troubleshoot the IBM SDN VE product. It also highlights specific, real-world examples that showcase the power and flexibility that IBM SDN VE has over traditional solutions with a legacy network infrastructure that is applied to virtual systems. This book assumes that you have a general familiarity with networking and virtualization. It does not assume an in-depth understanding of KVM or VMware. It is written for administrators who want to get a quick start with IBM SDN VE in their respective virtualized infrastructure, and to get some virtual machines up and running by using the rich features of the product in a short amount of time (days, not week, or months).


Using the IBM Security Framework and IBM Security Blueprint to Realize Business-Driven Security

Using the IBM Security Framework and IBM Security Blueprint to Realize Business-Driven Security

Author: Axel Buecker

Publisher: IBM Redbooks

Published: 2014-02-06

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0738437891

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Security is a major consideration in the way that business and information technology systems are designed, built, operated, and managed. The need to be able to integrate security into those systems and the discussions with business functions and operations exists more than ever. This IBM® Redbooks® publication explores concerns that characterize security requirements of, and threats to, business and information technology (IT) systems. This book identifies many business drivers that illustrate these concerns, including managing risk and cost, and compliance to business policies and external regulations. This book shows how these drivers can be translated into capabilities and security needs that can be represented in frameworks, such as the IBM Security Blueprint, to better enable enterprise security. To help organizations with their security challenges, IBM created a bridge to address the communication gap between the business and technical perspectives of security to enable simplification of thought and process. The IBM Security Framework can help you translate the business view, and the IBM Security Blueprint describes the technology landscape view. Together, they can help bring together the experiences that we gained from working with many clients to build a comprehensive view of security capabilities and needs. This book is intended to be a valuable resource for business leaders, security officers, and consultants who want to understand and implement enterprise security by considering a set of core security capabilities and services.


Handbook of Fiber Optic Data Communication

Handbook of Fiber Optic Data Communication

Author: Casimer DeCusatis

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2013-08-09

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 0124016952

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The 4th edition of this popular Handbook continues to provide an easy-to-use guide to the many exciting new developments in the field of optical fiber data communications. With 90% new content, this edition contains all new material describing the transformation of the modern data communications network, both within the data center and over extended distances between data centers, along with best practices for the design of highly virtualized, converged, energy efficient, secure, and flattened network infrastructures. Key topics include networks for cloud computing, software defined networking, integrated and embedded networking appliances, and low latency networks for financial trading or other time-sensitive applications. Network architectures from the leading vendors are outlined (including Smart Analytic Solutions, Qfabric, FabricPath, and Exadata) as well as the latest revisions to industry standards for interoperable networks, including lossless Ethernet, 16G Fiber Channel, RoCE, FCoE, TRILL, IEEE 802.1Qbg, and more. - Written by experts from IBM, HP, Dell, Cisco, Ciena, and Sun/ Oracle - Case studies and 'How to...' demonstrations on a wide range of topics, including Optical Ethernet, next generation Internet, RDMA and Fiber Channel over Ethernet - Quick reference tables of all the key optical network parameters for protocols like ESCON, FICON, and SONET/ATM and a glossary of technical terms and acronyms


Performance and Capacity Themes for Cloud Computing

Performance and Capacity Themes for Cloud Computing

Author: Elisabeth Stahl

Publisher: IBM Redbooks

Published: 2013-03-20

Total Pages: 76

ISBN-13: 0738451207

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This IBM® RedpaperTM is the second in a series that addresses the performance and capacity considerations of the evolving cloud computing model. The first Redpaper publication (Performance Implications of Cloud Computing, REDP-4875) introduced cloud computing with its various deployment models, support roles, and offerings along with IT performance and capacity implications associated with these deployment models and offerings. In this redpaper, we discuss lessons learned in the two years since the first paper was written. We offer practical guidance about how to select workloads that work best with cloud computing, and about how to address areas, such as performance testing, monitoring, service level agreements, and capacity planning considerations for both single and multi-tenancy environments. We also provide an example of a recent project where cloud computing solved current business needs (such as cost reduction, optimization of infrastructure utilization, and more efficient systems management and reporting capabilities) and how the solution addressed performance and capacity challenges. We conclude with a summary of the lessons learned and a perspective about how cloud computing can affect performance and capacity in the future.


Handbook on Data Centers

Handbook on Data Centers

Author: Samee U. Khan

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-03-16

Total Pages: 1309

ISBN-13: 1493920928

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This handbook offers a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research achievements in the field of data centers. Contributions from international, leading researchers and scholars offer topics in cloud computing, virtualization in data centers, energy efficient data centers, and next generation data center architecture. It also comprises current research trends in emerging areas, such as data security, data protection management, and network resource management in data centers. Specific attention is devoted to industry needs associated with the challenges faced by data centers, such as various power, cooling, floor space, and associated environmental health and safety issues, while still working to support growth without disrupting quality of service. The contributions cut across various IT data technology domains as a single source to discuss the interdependencies that need to be supported to enable a virtualized, next-generation, energy efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly data center. This book appeals to a broad spectrum of readers, including server, storage, networking, database, and applications analysts, administrators, and architects. It is intended for those seeking to gain a stronger grasp on data center networks: the fundamental protocol used by the applications and the network, the typical network technologies, and their design aspects. The Handbook of Data Centers is a leading reference on design and implementation for planning, implementing, and operating data center networks.


Introduction to Storage Area Networks

Introduction to Storage Area Networks

Author: Jon Tate

Publisher: IBM Redbooks

Published: 2018-10-09

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0738442887

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The superabundance of data that is created by today's businesses is making storage a strategic investment priority for companies of all sizes. As storage takes precedence, the following major initiatives emerge: Flatten and converge your network: IBM® takes an open, standards-based approach to implement the latest advances in the flat, converged data center network designs of today. IBM Storage solutions enable clients to deploy a high-speed, low-latency Unified Fabric Architecture. Optimize and automate virtualization: Advanced virtualization awareness reduces the cost and complexity of deploying physical and virtual data center infrastructure. Simplify management: IBM data center networks are easy to deploy, maintain, scale, and virtualize, delivering the foundation of consolidated operations for dynamic infrastructure management. Storage is no longer an afterthought. Too much is at stake. Companies are searching for more ways to efficiently manage expanding volumes of data, and to make that data accessible throughout the enterprise. This demand is propelling the move of storage into the network. Also, the increasing complexity of managing large numbers of storage devices and vast amounts of data is driving greater business value into software and services. With current estimates of the amount of data to be managed and made available increasing at 60% each year, this outlook is where a storage area network (SAN) enters the arena. SANs are the leading storage infrastructure for the global economy of today. SANs offer simplified storage management, scalability, flexibility, and availability; and improved data access, movement, and backup. Welcome to the cognitive era. The smarter data center with the improved economics of IT can be achieved by connecting servers and storage with a high-speed and intelligent network fabric. A smarter data center that hosts IBM Storage solutions can provide an environment that is smarter, faster, greener, open, and easy to manage. This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides an introduction to SAN and Ethernet networking, and how these networks help to achieve a smarter data center. This book is intended for people who are not very familiar with IT, or who are just starting out in the IT world.


Handbook of Fiber Optic Data Communication

Handbook of Fiber Optic Data Communication

Author: Carolyn J. Sher DeCusatis

Publisher: Elsevier Inc. Chapters

Published: 2013-08-09

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13: 0128068345

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This chapter describes cloud computing technology and its impact on the data center network. We define the essential elements of cloud computing, including on-demand service, broad network access, resource pooling, elastic provisioning, and metered service at various quality of service levels. Models including software, platform, and infrastructure as a service (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) are discussed, along with private, public, and hybrid cloud models and cloud service providers. Unique requirements of a cloud network include virtualization and virtual machine mobility, security, hypervisor virtual switching, converged storage, and new routing protocols such as Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) and Shortest Path Bridging (SPB). We conclude with a brief discussion of software-defined networking (SDN) in the context of cloud computing.