Data storage and processing systems

Data storage and processing systems make up the basis for further deployment of all company’s information systems. It should be remembered that any up-to-date data storage and processing system is an integral and complex solution that supports all life cycle of information flows.

Typical data storage and processing system includes the following components:

Services

SITRONICS Information Technologies Company provides a wide range of services for design, construction and maintenance of data storage and processing systems, including:
  • Pre-project examination of the existing systems;
  • Determination of requirements to the new platform;
  • Determination of a construction model and further development of a new platform;
  • Design and implementation;
  • Development and implementation of system service policies, and also actions in emergency situations;
  • Service support for solutions.

Experience

SITRONICS Information Technologies Company has a unique experience in design and implementation of complex solutions of various configurations and levels of information system complexity. Our practical experience makes it possible to take account of many factors that define success of implementation as early as during the design stage. Such factors include a large number of parameters, from characteristics of hardware that has already been installed, of its real capacity and applications used, to the system requirements in accordance with the business development plans for the coming years.

Partnership

Data processing and storage solutions are based on the achievements of such world known manufacturers as IBM, Sun Microsystems, HP, EMC, HDS, Cisco Systems, АРС and other. The Company is open for cooperation and partnership, and our partner list is constantly growing.

The approaches used in the design of data storage and processing systems
Current practice shows that the most effective solution to problems of information centers is system resource allocation (processors, disks, physical infrastructure etc) into separate subsystems and resource consolidation within these subsystems. In other words, two complementary approaches are used: division of resources by functional representation and consolidation of resources within a dedicated resource group. This way, a correctly designed information system is made up of three key elements.

1. Computing subsystem, representing consolidated computing resources. Consolidation here is reached through one of two strategies:

  • Vertical information center: use of one or a small number of multiprocessor SMP-systems with support of system partitions (virtual servers). When implementing such an approach, RISC enterprise-wide systems with high performance and functionality are normally used.
  • Horizontal information center — use of a number of standard servers with 1-4 IA64 multiprocessors, including centralization of multi-access resources (power supply, cooling, management, monitoring, communications). It is convenient to implement such center using blade servers, especially using virtualization technologies.

With both strategies used, the data is not stored locally, for servers are diskless systems, devoid of ‘individuality’ and, as a consequence, are fully replaceable.

2. Data storage subsystem consolidates data storage resources. In most cases, in order to build the given subsystem, storage area networks (SAN) are normally used. In this case, physical drives provide necessary performance, reliability, scalability and controllability of data storage subsystem.

These days such efficient data warehouses as iSCSI with the use of the existing GbE network infrastructure also gain in popularity, as much as hierarchical data storage on drives with various characteristics and cost, including highly efficient solid state disks SSD.

3. Physical infrastructure consolidates resources of power, conditioning, physical layout and cable junction. 

The introduced architecture of an information center allows to implement an ideal scheme of interaction with users, where workstations are solely used for the input and display of information, and differ in minimal total cost of ownership.

A high-end approach to work place arrangement makes it possible to widely utilize user terminals and thin clients, which significantly simplify file backup and user support along with the increase of service level. Such a solution has an important advantage over a traditional approach with regard to investment protection: terminals are not prone to rapid obsolescence, which is so typical of workstations.