Remote data storage replication for Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP) is required for agencies and municipalities to meet availability objectives and regulatory demands. While it is essential to implement a network-based replication solution for COOP, extending cost-effective applications between data centers while maintaining the high-throughput and low-latency performance necessary for business-critical applications proves challenging.

Challenges

High network performance is not affordable with traditional solutions. Applications that require high performance include disk-mirroring, geo-clustering and remote tape backup, which are extremely sensitive to latencies caused by traditional storage channel extension equipment and low-bandwidth VPN services. Generally, bandwidth services make up to 60 percent of the cost for replication solutions, which considerably drive up overall costs of long-distance replication and backup. Additionally, current storage replication solutions require numerous hardware platforms that drive up equipment and operations costs. These include storage extension devices, Ethernet/ATM switches, external routers and service provider WAN equipment.

Solution

A storage replication solution needs to support high-bandwidth connectivity with high performance at an affordable cost. A storage extension solution must optimize the bandwidth to save costs and eliminate the requirement for external switches/routers. This could significantly reduce the network cost of a COOP solution and make it affordable for the increasing number of applications deemed critical enough to replicate.

Ciena's offerings

Ciena provides enterprises the industry’s most cost-effective, highest-performance solutions for remote data storage replication and data center connectivity. Ciena’s solutions provide high-bandwidth, low-latency transport to interconnect data centers from across town to across continents. These solutions allow all leading storage replication applications and protocols to be simultaneously transported over a single network infrastructure at full native rates. And Ciena’s powerful compression and multiplexing capabilities optimize bandwidth utilization, reducing costs up to 70 percent versus competitive solutions. Ciena’s strong industry partnerships, proven interoperability, and simplified network management combine to provide a complete, trusted end-to-end extension portfolio for critical applications.

Benefits

• Enable agencies and municipalities to implement the right COOP replication solution at an affordable cost
• Eliminate the high-cost barriers normally associated with high-performance data replication connectivity
• Reduce recurring bandwidth costs by up to 70%
• Lower capital cost (elimination of switches/routers, software tunable equipment)
• Higher performance (low latency, high throughput, detailed monitoring)