Archives for May 2014

Press Release: SIOS Webinar Featuring Microsoft SQL MVP Recommends Strategy to Improve Performance and Availability Protection by Eliminating SAN Storage in SQL Server Environments

May 20, 2014 by sios2017

SAN MATEO, CA – May 20, 2014 – SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced a live webinar featuring Microsoft MVP, Geoff Hiten who will discuss the performance limitations of SAN storage in compute-intensive SQL environments and recommend a strategy that enables faster SQL response times and high availability protection without the cost or complexity of a SAN. This webinar, “Thinking outside the SANbox,” is scheduled for Thursday, May 29 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST.

To register, please visit: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/370146170

More IT shops are facing hard choices. To get value from their investment in SANs, they need to optimize it for maximum capacity. To keep end users productive with SQL Server, they need predictable, stable performance in a highly available environment. Which do they choose? Do they incur the high cost of faster SAN performance or run SQL Server without the high availability protection of a SAN-based cluster? These are some of the questions Geoff will answer during this interactive webinar.

Microsoft MVP Geoff Hiten is a SQL Server consultant. Geoff began working with SQL Server in 1992 with version 4.2 and has used every version since then. He specializes in high-availability and high-performance SQL systems. Geoff is heavily involved in the Microsoft SQL Server Community and was initially awarded MVP status in 2004. Geoff currently works with the Atlanta MDF and SQL Saturday Atlanta organizing committee.

About SIOS Technology Corp.

SIOS Technology Corp. makes SAN and #SANLess software solutions that make clusters easy to use and easy to own. An essential part of any cluster solution, SIOS SAN and #SANLess software provides the flexibility to build Clusters Your Way^™ to protect your choice of Windows or Linux environment in any configuration (or combination) of physical, virtual and cloud (public, private, and hybrid) without sacrificing performance or availability. The unique SIOS #SANLess clustering solution allows you to configure clusters with local storage, eliminating both the cost and the single-point-of-failure risk of traditional shared (SAN) storage.

Founded in 1999, SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com) is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and has offices throughout the United States, United Kingdom and Japan.

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SIOS, SIOS Technology, SIOS DataKeeper, SIOS Protection Suite, Clusters Your Way, and associated logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of SIOS Technology Corp. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Contact:
Beth Winkowski
Winkowski Public Relations, LLC for SIOS
Phone: 978-649-7189
Email: bethwinkowski@US.SIOS.com

SQL Server HA & DR Costs: You Really Can Save $800K

May 9, 2014 by <a href="http://joeydantoni.com/">Joey D'Antoni</a> Leave a Comment

SQL Server expert Joey D'Antoni — Guest Blogger
SQL Expert
Joey D’Antoni

SQL Server costs are rising fast. As you may know, I recently presented a live webinar on how to reduce the cost of HA/DR in SQL Server environments. I’m happy to say, the event was well attended and led to some lively discussion in the SQL community. Watch the recorded webinar here.

Here’s what we covered. . .

I reviewed the licensing changes in SQL Server 2012 that have nearly doubled the cost of licensing; discussed the reasons that many IT departments feel they have to upgrade to SQL Server Enterprise Edition for HA and DR protection, and showed the impact of that upgrade on software costs. I also reviewed recently published figures on the five-year total cost of ownership for SAN storage. Finally, I provided some simple strategies for reducing both licensing and SAN costs that could potentially save you more than $800,000.

In a nutshell, providing HA and DR protection for SQL Server is driving up costs and adding a variety of challenges that can be easily avoided. For example, SANs are not only expensive, they are problematic for SQL users. Being locked into a SAN limits flexibility and can hamper performance. In fact, a SAN typically runs out of performance before it runs out of storage capacity – making SAN utilization and application response times a real challenge for CPU-intensive SQL Server deployments. The costs to implement solid state drive in storage arrays is typically far more expensive than using local SSD storage.

#SANLess Clusters for SQL Server

Not surprisingly, the benefits of #SANLess clusters seemed to capture most people’s interest. To recap, I explained that you can simply build a cluster using Windows Server Failover Clustering and, instead of a SAN, you simply add SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition software. The software synchronizes local storage and makes it appear to WSFC like a SAN. I have used this deployment in enterprise SQL Server environments and found that it has the following benefits:

Delivers HA and DR with SQL Server Standard Edition – eliminating the need to upgrade to Enterprise Edition or to pay more for Software Assurance.
Eliminates the need for SAN storage – saving both hardware costs and ongoing SAN administration costs
Enables the use of SSD storage for significantly faster SQL application response times at a fraction of the cost of a SAN-based solution
Provides configuration flexibility – allowing you use create any combination of physical, virtual, cloud, and hybrid cloud configuration and to replicate between SAN and #SANLess clusters.

My analysis of SQL HA and DR costs and my simple strategies for reducing SQL Server HA and DR costs are summarized in more detail in my white paper, SQL Server HA and DR: A Simple Strategy for Realizing Dramatic Cost Savings.

May 29, 2014 Live Webinar: Think Outside the SAN(box)

May 6, 2014 by Margaret Hoagland Leave a Comment

In this compelling webinar, SQL Server MVP, Geoff Hiten proposes a better solution that delivers high performance and high availability without the cost or complexity of SAN storage using low-cost SQL Standard Edition licensing. Join us on May 29th, 1 PM ET/10 AM PT for a live webinar.

About the presenter

Microsoft MVP Geoff Hiten is a SQL Server consultant. Geoff began working with SQL Server in 1992 with version 4.2 and has used every version since then. He specializes in high-availability and high-performance SQL systems. Geoff is heavily involved in the Microsoft SQL Server Community and was initially awarded MVP status in 2004. Geoff was appointed in 2011 to fill an interim Director position at the National PASS organization. Geoff currently works with the AtlantaMDF and SQLSaturday Atlanta organizing committee.