WHITE PAPER

UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING:
ENTERPRISE NETWORK AVAILABILITY
AT AN SMB PRICE

SPRING 2010

Continuity of Business Operations

An Expensive Proposition

High Availability Made Easy

What is Virtualization?

What is Unstoppable Computing?

How Does It Work?

Flexible and Scalable

A Complete Solution

UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING

Regardless of the size of your business, you require an IT infrastructure that is continuously available. You rely
on your network servers to share your business-critical files, applications, and data, as well as to host your email
and Web environments. In other words, your network is the backbone of your entire operation. Any problem
with server hardware or a critical application means unplanned downtime and a loss of productivitycosting you
time and money.
Server failures that occur during working hours can bring productivity to a complete standstill, and often prompt
business owners to send employees home for the remainder of the day. On the other hand, failures that occur
outside of business hours require somebody to drive to the office on a weekend, or in the middle of the night, to
investigate and attempt to resolve the problem. Either way, downtime has a negative impact on your
organization, with significant direct and indirect costs.

CONTINUITY OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS

High availability refers to a system that continuously functions, providing uninterrupted access to the companys
business-critical data and network resources. Achieving high availability requires multiple redundant servers,
which are configured in such a way that a secondary server takes over all functionality in the event that the
primary server fails. For example, a physical server may host your office productivity tools, customer relationship
management application, accounting software, and other software applications you require to effectively run your
business. A separate, identical server would be configured to host the same applications, and would be updated
throughout the day, to reflect any and all changes from the first server. Therefore, if the primary server were to
experience a failure, the second server could take over its duties, quickly and efficiently, with minimal impact to
normal business operations.
This redundant configuration would be repeated for every server in your network, to ensure that no server failure
would cause a significant business interruption. The ideal goal for high availability is to reduce or altogether
eliminate downtime for all critical business functions. With a highly available network, businesses can avoid fatal
crashes, and keep their businesses running.

AN EXPENSIVE PROPOSITION
Whether you are a small business without dedicated IT resources, or a medium-sized business with a small IT
staff that is already stretched thin, continuously managing your corporate network can be a difficult, expensive
proposition. For businesses with multiple sites, the task is even more daunting, since the equipment is typically
physically separated from those who are required to manage it effectively.
In addition to the IT resource constraints, the hardware and software required to achieve and maintain a highly
available infrastructure can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollarswell out of reach for small- and
medium-sized businesses. And with as many as 10 physical servers comprising the core infrastructure of most
businesses, the expertise and bandwidth required to configure, manage, and maintain the environment seems

White Paper

UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING

unrealistic for all but the largest of enterprises. As a result, most small- and medium-sized businesses simply
make do with what they have, and deal reactively with outages when they occurputting their network assets
at extraordinary risk for a catastrophic failure.

UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING: HIGH AVAILABILITY MADE EASY

Iomega and VMware have partnered to develop the ideal solution to this quandary, making it easy and
affordable for small- and medium-sized businesses to build and manage a highly available IT environment.
Unlike a traditional highly available infrastructure, which requires a duplicate of each server in the environment
and enterprise-grade routers and switches to effectively manage all network traffic, the two technology leaders
have developed a solution called Unstoppable Computing, which provides the same type of functionality for a
small business environment, using as few as two servers. With Unstoppable Computing, you can:
1. Have a highly available infrastructure, for increased server and application uptime
2. Employ leading virtualization technology, which enables your entire network infrastructure to be run on one
physical server
3. Protect your business-critical data with proven storage technology
4. Benefit from automatic failover, for a no touch solution to get your business back up and running

WHAT IS VIRTUALIZATION?
Simply stated, virtualization is a technology that partitions a section of a computer or server, then controls that
section separately from the rest of the device. Often referred to as a computer within a computer, the partition
executes programs as if it were its own physical machine. In fact, the partition, also known as a virtual
machine, or VM, is capable of running its own applications, processes, and even a separate operating system
from the rest of the computer.
Virtualization is becoming an increasingly popular technology, due to the many benefits it provides organizations
of all sizes. Most businesses utilize a dedicated server model, in which each network server is utilized exclusively
for one purpose such as file sharing, or hosting a database or shared application. While this exclusivity is
frequently necessary to ensure proper performance of the non-virtualized device, it also leads to a significant
underutilization of computing resources. In contrast, virtualization dramatically improves the efficiency of these
network resources, enabling the same physical piece of hardware to simultaneously function as multiple
computing devices. As a result, more can be accomplished with the same physical server device. Therefore,
organizations employing virtualization have less hardware to purchase and maintain, which in turn requires less
power and cooling over the life of the device, and commands less physical space, freeing up valuable real estate.

White Paper

UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING

WHAT IS UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING?

Unstoppable Computing provides the ideal solution for small- and medium-sized businesses to ensure business
continuity and high availability of their business-critical infrastructure, at an affordable price. Combining their
best-of-breed solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses, VMware and Iomega can help small businesses
minimize their downtime and recover quickly from unplanned outages. Comprised of two physical servers,
virtualization software, and a network storage device, Unstoppable Computing completely automates network
failover, in the event of an outage.

Internet

Router

VMware High Availability and Vmotion

AD

App

Exchange

SQL FT

OS

OS

OS

OS

Fault Tolerance

vSphere

SQL FT

App

Web /SSP

File Print

OS

OS

OS

OS

vSphere
Switch

Physical Server

iSCSI

Physical Server

Iomega StorCenter Device

VMware High Availability (HA) automatically shifts the workload to the secondary server, in the event of a
primary server failure. The secondary server then fetches the most recent snapshot from the storage device,
from which it restarts the affected server or application. This all occurs automatically, with no human
intervention required. This means outages that occur in the middle of the night can be rectified while you sleep,
with your environment up and running normally by the time you arrive in the officeduring normal working
hours. Likewise, a failure in a remote office will not affect the business operation, without the need for IT staff to
travel to the location, or to experience the frustration of walking an office manager or salesperson through
technically complex recovery steps. Theres also no need to send employees home for the day while you work on
a recovery solutionthe system will be bring itself back up, quickly and efficiently, so your employees can get
back to work.

White Paper

UNSTOPPABLE COMPUTING

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Using VMware vSphere Essentials Plus, you can host your entire networkapplication servers, file servers, and
database servers, as well as Web and Email serverson a single physical hardware device. Simply install
vSphere and create the virtual machines on both physical servers, then tie the two servers together in just a few
clicks, using failover technology. Next, install the operating environment and
applications on the primary server, as usual. When the primary physical server has
been completely configured, vSphere creates the VM files, which are then stored
on the Iomega StorCenter network storage device, and are accessible by both
physical servers.
Using VMware snapshot backups throughout the day, the server environment is
saved to the StorCenter device for continuous data protection. If the primary
server fails, vSphere retrieves the VM file from the StorCenter and then replays it
on the secondary server. The secondary server then contacts the StorCenter to
access the most recent snapshot, for maximum business continuity. Best of all,
this process happens automatically, with no human intervention required. Your
network can be up and running quickly. You dont have to lose sleep, or send anybody home. In contrast,
without a high availability solution in place, you would be forced to reinstall the operating system and each of
your applicationsbit by bit, one-by-one.

FLEXIBLE AND SCALABLE

Unstoppable Computing is a flexible solution that scales up or down, to fit the specific needs of your
environment. Utilizing vSphere, you can produce virtual machines, enabling your entire environment to be
hosted on a single physical server. And any StorCenter network storage device can be employed in the
Unstoppable Computing infrastructure, providing you with the ability to scale between 1TB and 8TB of storage
capacity. You choose the number of VMs and the storage capacity that best fits your needsand your budget.

A COMPLETE SOLUTION
Comprised of best-of-breed solutions from VMware and Iomega, Unstoppable Computing provides small- and
medium-sized businesses with a high availability network at an SMB price. With Unstoppable Computing, you
can sleep better knowing your network is protected by a robust business continuity solution. Unstoppable
Computing helps small businesses reduce network downtime, the number of servers required to run the
network, and initial and ongoing costsall while increasing stability, reliability, and productivity.
High availability. Flexibility. Peace of mind. Thats Unstoppable Computing.

2010 Iomega Corporation. All rights reserved. Iomega, StorCenter, and the stylized i logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Iomega Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. EMC, Lifeline, and Retrospect are registered trademarks of
EMC Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States
and/or other countries. Macintosh and Mac are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Certain other product names, brand names and company names may be trademarks or designations or their
respective owners. Iomega's specific customer support policies (including fees for services) and procedures change as technology and market conditions dictate. Product in photos may vary slightly from product in package. Product capacities are specified in gigabytes
(GB), where 1GB = 1,000,000,000 Bytes. To obtain information about Iomegas current policies please visit Iomega at www.iomega.com or call 1-888-4iomega (1-888-446-6342). UCWP-0410-04