We do a lot of work here with NetApp as a storage vendor and Microsoft as a solution vendor and over the last 18 months or so, we have seen the increased integration and development of NetApp’s value to the Microsoft virtualisation stack, we have seen some good success with our clients and have been involved in some excellent projects with them using these technologies.

However nice to see it backed by someone with Matt’s experience and someone who has no vested interest in NetApp storage above and beyond any other storage vendor, in fact in his role, he has to be agnostic.

Anyway enjoy the post… if you do want to know more about Matt or Microsoft’s virtualisation solutions then click here to check out his excellent BLOG

so here’s Matt’s BLOG, word for word…

I’ve been a big fan of NetApp technologies for ages, and I’ve worked closely with people like Steve Winfield, and Pete Mason, to produce a number of videos showcasing some of the collaborative work that’s gone on between Microsoft and NetApp, resulting in products like SnapManager for Hyper-V, SnapDrive 6.2 and more.  We’ve got some fantastic joint wins on the platform now too, at both small, and large customers, so it’s all good from that perspective.

I’m currently building out my team’s internal demo infrastructure, which currently consists of 1 Dell T605, with Hyper-V R2, and a number of System Center technologies virtualised on top, along with a cluster of 2 Dell R710’s, hooked up to a NetApp FAS3050c.  Now this FAS3050c isn’t the latest model, and it doesn’t have the most capacity in the world (my DS14 Disk shelf gives me around 570GB of usable space) but then it was kindly donated to me by NetApp, who were replacing some of their older kit, with newer kit for our Microsoft Technology Center, in Reading, UK.  The great thing for me is, I can still have the latest version of OnTap, it’ll work with the latest and greatest versions of SnapDrive, and SnapManager for Hyper-V, and it still gives me all the features I need, like the snapshotting, thin provisioning, and best of all, deduplication.  I’ll be honest with you right now.  I love dedupe.  I think it’s fantastically clever, streamlined, and because it’s at the block-level, rather than the file level, it’ll even dedupe stuff that you think, on the surface, has no chance of being deduped.  Crazy stuff.  Let me explain more.

Firstly, for those of you not sure what deduplication with NetApp is, and how it works, there’s a great explanation over at the Dr DeDupe blog.

As I said, my cluster environment is 2 Nodes, and to that cluster, I’m presenting 4 LUNs of storage, which in my NetApp environment, are in 4 separate Volumes.  You don’t have to do it like this, and who knows, maybe I’ll change it in the future, but right now, this is how it is:

As you can see, I’ve got a dedicated LUN for my witness disk, (I’m using Node and Disk Majority for my 2-node cluster), and 3 LUNs presented to the cluster, which have been selected to be Cluster Shared Volumes.  They aren’t huge, 100GB each for two of them, and a 25GB CSV that will hold the swap files of my key VMs (Each host only has 12GB RAM, so having 25GB for SWAP VHD’s is fine!)  You’ll see from the image above, that currently, I’m using around 51% of my CSV2.  It’s currently got a 40GB (ish) Fixed VHD with WS2008 R2 inside, but at the same time, CSV2 also has another Dynamic VHD, with Windows 7 x86 inside it, currently expanded to around 8GB.  Total consumption of that CSV is 51GB:

So, that means I’ll lose 51GB on my SAN, right?  Wrong!  We’re actually using a grand total of 17.5GB!

If we go over to NetApp System Manager, and take a look at this particular volume, you can see for yourself:

Just think about this for a minute.  Due to the fact that this is block-level deduplication, we can look inside the contents of the VHD files etc, and see where the blocks match, and deduplicate them, so in this case, we’ve saved a grand total of 37.62GB, which amounts to 60%.  Obviously Windows still thinks it’s using 51GB, even though, under the covers, the SAN hasn’t lost that space.  This is where Thin Provisioning starts to help, as you can make Windows think it has more storage available to it.

This use of deduplication hasn’t just been used on my CSV’s.  Oh no.  I’ve used it on the Witness disk, where, even though the whole volume is only 1GB, and the consumption was 50MB for the quorum information, deduplication still managed to save me 10mb, which is 20%.  What about my other savings?  Well, on my SCVMM Library, where I’m storing a couple of VHDs, but also some ISO files, I’ve saved a total of 15%, and on my actual backup store, being used by Data Protection Manager 2010, to protect Hyper-V and SQL so far, I’m saving just under 39GB, which equates to 58%.  These savings are real, and are enabling me to get even greater levels of consolidation on my SAN than I would have normally.  Brilliant stuff NetApp.

Now I just need to get ApplianceWatch PRO working…

Normally when mentioned that the camera is connected to a computer network people tend to think of webcams, small, basic devices that connect to your computer used for chatting with your friends. This simply isn’t the case, with the advancement of camera technology picture definition has been vastly improved and impressive features added including::

• High Definition
• Thermal imaging
• Infra-Red imaging
• Facial recognition
• Automatic Number Plate Recognition
• PIR sensing
• LED lighting
• Motion detection

As these cameras are Ethernet based they can be easily incorporated into your existing network infrastructure to allow easier manageability, scalability, reliability and flexibility. Images can be backed up to a data store on your network or using Gardners service offerings, backup the images to us also ensuring that you always have a copy of your images.

Pilot Scheme

We have recently begun our trial scheme for our Axis offerings. During the past couple of weeks we have been contacted by some of the North-West’s largest companies interested in this technology and are piloting the cameras with them.

If you wish to get involved with this free of charge trial scheme, we have a range of IP cameras available suitable for any purpose. If you are considering replacing your current security cameras, installing new ones, or are simply interested in the technology and want to trial some IP cameras please just let me know.

Email: jasonf@gardsys.co.uk

Twitter: @enrjfitz

Phone: 0151 220 5552

Hi all, first blog post in a while (sorry!).

Just to remind all of you that were hot on the heels of downloading and installing Windows 7 RC (build 7100) – your time is almost up. Starting on 1st March 2010 users with this RC release will experience their machine shutting down every 2hrs, messages warning that the copy of Windows is not genuine.

On June 1, 2010, if you are still on the Windows 7 RC, your license will expire and the non-genuine experience will be triggered. Your wallpaper will be removed and "This copy of Windows is not genuine" will be displayed in the lower right corner of your desktop, above the taskbar. Starting on February 15, 2010, Windows 7 RC should actually start giving daily prompts to remind you about the expiration, but just in case two weeks’ notice isn’t enough, we’re letting you know a month in advance.

If you have enjoyed using Windows 7, upgrade to it! It’s brilliant!

Upgrade sooner rather than later to avoid issues in the future.

If YES: We can provide you with a free, no obligations competitive quotation.

Whether you’re satisfied with current arrangements or not, Gardner Systems can provide you with a fully comprehensive comparison that will outline not only what you will pay, but precisely the level of support you can expect. Find out how Gardners can assist you in achieving business goals as well as reducing IT costs.

If NO: We may be able to assist you in reaching business goals through enhanced efficiency of your IT giving you savings against your existing maintenance expenditure.

Either way, you have nothing to lose!!

Why not contact Gardner Systems and find out exactly how we can help you save money compared to your existing support costs.

Find out more here

One thing that has changed has been how technology now allows business to continue to operate in lots of cases pretty much unhampered, amazing how many people can now simply “work from home”, so although it may be difficult for the UK to handle the big infrastructure things, such as transport for rare occurrences such as the snow we are currently getting, the technology available today makes it much easier for many businesses to deploy solutions that allow great flexibility for its staff to make work “an activity not a destination”. We’ve done that here and have been able to keep ticking over pretty easily regardless of whether our team are snowed in or in the office, so what are the technologies we’ve used and what could you use in your business.

· Broadband – one of the biggest changes to the IT world over the last 10 years has become the ubiquity of high speed broadband access, pretty much every home in the country and probably everyone in commuter belt country have access to speeds more than enough to operate your normal office apps.

· Mobile Broadband – a useful addition is the ability to get mobile broadband services, more limited that their landline equivalent, but the major conurbations have good wide ranging coverage.

· Wireless access – again the shift in attitude to use of laptops and wireless access around the house as well as public wireless/Internet access from Starbucks to McDonalds, means for many people that flicking open the laptop and it just connecting to the Internet is no longer “techie magic” and is just expected by everyone be they 7 or 70.

But how do these technologies allow business to continue and although we are talking about the effect of the snow, what we are actually talking about is a business continuity plan, that allows you to continue when access to your business has been affected by a major event…or 5 inches of snow!

So here’s what we have done with our systems to keep the business moving.

As a Microsoft partner, our business systems are based around their technology, so apologies if you don’t use Microsoft stuff, but of course there are other ways to do all of these, just the plus with most of the MS technology we use, is the functions are out of the box and included in the price, so no need for gateways or 3^rd party extra apps to deliver it.

One of the technology changes we have seen from Microsoft and other software companies as faster remote access has become the norm, is the realisation that applications have to take into account the new reality of how people work, that is flexibly and often remotely. Microsoft have responded to that, taking many applications and ensuring they work well over limited bandwidth. But not only technically they work, but more importantly that these work pretty much seamlessly for the users. That is one area we’ve seen a real good improvement, apps just working regardless of location.

· Email – with our Exchange Server we have used the excellent Outlook Anywhere facility that allows our Outlook clients to connect securely to Exchange, using encrypted ports and certificates to ensure security, the Outlook Client automatically connects based on whether local or remote and makes the decision for the user. The introduction of Outlook Cache mode also helps to enhance this experience, allowing users to continue working with Outlook data even without a connection the Exchange server.

· Outlook Web Access with secure document access – Outlook Web access was enhanced in Exchange 2007 not just to include a web email client, but also introduced document access, allowing users to connect to folders shares and SharePoint sites, directly from their OWA client, without the need for any other software. Lots of clients have loved this, some deploying Exchange 2007 just for this…and yes…still there in 2010.

· SharePoint – A great collaboration tool…and important in our day to day use, SharePoint can also be accessed securely from the Internet and allows document collaboration for our currently geographically spread staff! Also has the option to access it via Outlook and OWA.

· Outlook Mobile access – our staff armed with the Windows Phone and iPhones (as well as trialling some software which puts active sync on a Blackberry…allowing you to get email to it, without the need for unnecessary Blackberry costs and BES technical overhead!) have been able to pick up their email without the need to even access a laptop, great for those quick messages and triage of email.

That’s what we currently have used, but that’s not all, we are enhancing this, in 2010 by deploying some new Microsoft technology that has shipped in the Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 releases;

· Terminal Server remote App publishing – for some of our Apps that don’t work so well over slow links, Sage Accounts springs to mind, we’ve always been able to run this as a TS app…however the problem with that, is you end up logging on, getting a new desktop etc…remote app publishing will allow us to just publish SAGE as an app. That will still run in TS but to the user will look like a local desktop app… so the look and feel of been local…but the performance of been sat in the office. These can be securely web published, so still no need for VPN.

· Windows 7 Direct access – as we roll out Windows 7 to our users the new direct access feature will be implemented, similar to that discussed in Outlook anywhere, our users will be open their Windows 7 laptops and connect straight in to all internal resources (well those we allow) and access them, securely, again without separate VPN overhead and invisible to the users, true anywhere access to resources, going to be a feature that changes the way many people work!

· Office Communications Server – we are going to extend the use of our real time comms application to allow users presence, IM and voice so we can communicate easily irrelevant of geography.

The important thing with all of these is that they are all relatively easy to deploy, all as part of the applications and from the end user point of view pretty much seamless, with the user able to open their laptop, whether in the office or at home, wired or wireless and their software OS and Apps will make the decisions that allow them to connect to key business applications with the user just been able to concentrate on doing their work and not worrying about remote technologies.

And that’s key in any continuity solution, that users are quickly and easily able to access their key business apps, without needing to wait for the helpdesk or the technical team to speak to them because the continuity solution is convoluted and separate from the day to day running of the business.

That’s just an example of what we’ve done, that’s allowed us to keep moving regardless of the current bad weather.

Think it’s time to build a snowman!!!

NetApp and Microsoft Announce Three-Year Pact Spanning Virtualization, Cloud Computing and Storage Management

Strategic Alliance to Deliver Highly Efficient and Optimized IT Solutions to Enterprise Customers

Sunnyvale, Calif. and REDMOND, Wash.—Dec. 8, 2009— NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced a new three-year agreement that deepens product collaboration and technical integration, and extends joint sales and marketing activities to customers worldwide. Under the new agreement, the two companies will collaborate and deliver technology solutions that span virtualization, private cloud computing, and storage and data management, enabling customers to increase data center management efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve business agility.

Over that time as both Hyper-V has become more mature, culminating in the recent R2 release, and NetApp’s understanding of where Hyper-V sits and how it works, has brought increasing levels of integration and ability to take advantage of the key NetApp value technologies.

When you start to bolt on things like Microsoft’s System Centre, SnapManager for Hyper-V and AppWatchPro from NetApp, you really are getting into the realms of a fully “Dynamic Datacentre” type solution, providing a very efficient (no duplication either dedupe or cloning) and flexible solution (rapid provisioning, using cloning technology).

We are seeing many clients we speak to now, really starting to appreciate the value of this dynamic approach to IT, the ability to have complete flexibility to quickly scale up and scale back their infrastructure, to quickly and without service disruption, move machines not only across hosts in a datacentre, but across datacentres.

And yes, this is not unique to NetApp and Microsoft as NetApp deliver lots of this functionality with VMWare and some of the VMWare plug ins are more mature, however what this announcement says to me, is that when major vendors like NetApp are making this kind of commitment, they appreciate that Hyper-V is very much a player and when you tie into it the power of what you can achieve with System Centre in terms of managing and automating your datacentre, there is a real choice for people to make in terms of delivering Dynamic Datacentre facilities.

Looking forward to seeing what kinds of MS/NetApp developments we get…exciting times ahead!

if you want to see the rest of the NetApp announcement go check it out click here want to see how NetApp and Microsoft work well together, check out Matt McSpirit’s Hyper-V/NetApp BLOG posts and videos

Monday 7^th December – 9 a.m. until 11.30 a.m.

Gardner is please to present the first of our “No Brainer” IT consultancy days. Now that the worst of the recession is hopefully behind us, what are the obvious IT strategies and tactics we can adopt to improve and grow our businesses at last? Our presenters will be drawn from current industry leaders who will give you the best advice on how to get the best from your IT, with specific reference to the significant technology changes taking place in 2009/2010.

If you are just a bit confused or bewildered about what it all the challenges mean to you, then come along and have things explained simply. Our agenda will include:-

• Microsoft “The New Efficiency” including Virtualisation, Business Management
• NetApp Storage Efficient Technologies
• IBM Energy Efficiency Servers
• Hosted Services
• Cost Effective Security through IP cameras
• Power and cost saving tools including PC PowerDown and DocSense

The venue is the Blue Planet Aquarium in Ellesmere Port. The only sharks present will be those in the aquarium! Much of the advice offered on the day is around energy and cost saving, so we will all be doing a lot towards saving the planet. The session will finish around 11-30 am, leaving you plenty of time to network with the advisors or just take the opportunity to wander around Blue Planet and add to the enjoyment of your morning.

http://www.blueplanetaquarium.com

If you are interested in attending this event please register here

Over the last few years we have seen demand for hosted software applications rapidly increase. Due to the success of Microsoft’s online services (Business Productivity Online Suite) they have decided to reduce the price in order to continue to deliver a competitive and compelling offer that will help to drive continued customer adoption. In addition mailbox storage has now been increased from 5B to 25GB.
From 3 November 2009 the new price structure for Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite is as follows:

Offer Original List Price New UK Price BPO Standard Suite £10.04 £6.71 Exchange Online Standard £6.69 £3.35 SharePoint Online Standard £4.85 £3.52 Office Communications Online Standard £1.67 £1.34 Live Meeting Standard £3.01 £3.02

You can visit the BPOS Official Website here

Opportunity for Your Business

1. The market is rapidly changing – IDC research forecasts +30% YOY growth, 2007-2011 for hosted applications. We believe that 50% of email seats in the small to medium size business segment and 20% in the enterprise market will be delivered via hosted email within five years. 2. We continue to offer rich cross and up sell opportunities with associated service opportunities. Our Software-plus-Services strategy means you can mix and match our products to deliver the perfect solution to your customers. 3. Selling Online solutions delivers increased sales margins for partners and provides annuity revenues. Microsoft Online Services deliver a 18% fee in the first year and 6% every recurring year. 4. You can earn revenues from implementing, integrating and managing a solution for your customers. A survey of 300 partners found that on average, for every £1 spent on licences, partners made more than £6 in service attach revenue and also benefited from shorter sales and delivery cycles. 5. You can deliver a secure and reliable service to your customers, providing a streamlined communications and collaboration experience, while leveraging economies of scale for infrastructure and utilities costs.

]]> http://blog.gardnersystems.co.uk/new-prices-announced-for-microsoft-bpos/feed/ 0 http://blog.gardnersystems.co.uk/new-bpos-pricing/ http://blog.gardnersystems.co.uk/new-bpos-pricing/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:17:55 +0000 Paul Stringfellow http://blog.gardnersystems.co.uk/new-bpos-pricing/  

Microsoft yesterday announced some new pricing for their excellent BPOS solution, for those who don’t know, Microsoft hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Office Comms Server and Live Meeting.

These price drops make a very attractive solution, even more so, driven by the market a little, but still some excellent unique point especially with Exchange, the ability to mix on premise and cloud exchange as far as I can see is unique to Microsoft’s offering, nothing forcing you all on premise or all “cloud” for quite a few people we’ve met with regarding “cloud” projects this is a big winner.

Couple of other things where announced a biggy been the increase in mailbox size from 5gb to 25gb, believe this brings it in line with what Google offer.

Also a couple of good new case studies.

you can check them out at http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-gb/about.mspx

Here’s the new prices

If this grabs you attention, why not give us a call here at Gardner’s to share some more detail with you.

Top Product Families

· Backup Exec

· Endpoint Security

· NetBackup

· Brightmail

For those users less familiar, these are comprised of the following popular product sets:-

Most Popular Products

· Backup Exec for Windows

· Endpoint Protection

· Ghost Solution Suite

· NetBackup

· Enterprise Vault

· Client Management Suite

All of these will be covered at events throughout 2009 with the additional ability to see new releases of security products designed to counter emerging security threats. For more information, go to the Symantec site at http://norton-symantec.co.uk or contact our sales staff on 0151 220 5552 or email us at info@gardsys.co.uk.