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SIOS Technology Spotlights 5 Myths about Cloud HA and DR

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SAN MATEO, CA – October 7, 2014 – Enterprises are moving more and more applications to the cloud.  The use of cloud computing is growing, and by 2016 this growth will increase to become the bulk of new IT spend, according to Gartner, Inc. 2016 will be a defining year for cloud as private cloud begins to give way to hybrid cloud, and nearly half of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of 2017.

“While the benefits of the cloud may be clear for applications that can tolerate brief periods of downtime, for mission-critical applications, such as SQL Server, Oracle and SAP, companies need a strategy for high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) protection,” said Jerry Melnick, COO of SIOS Technology Corp., maker of SAN and SANLess clustering software. “While traditional SAN-based clusters are not possible in these environments, SANLess clusters can provide an easy, cost-efficient alternative.”

According to Gartner, IT service failover automation provides end-to-end IT service startup, shutdown and failover operations for disaster recovery (DR) and continuous availability. It establishes ordering and dependency rules as well as IT service failover policies. The potential business impact of this emerging technology is high, reducing the amount of spare infrastructure that is needed to ensure DR and continuous availability, as well as helping ensure that recovery policies work when failures occur, thus improving business process uptimeii. Jerry Melnick says separating the truths and myths of HA and DR in cloud deployments can dramatically reduce data center costs and risks. He debunks these five myths:

Myth #1 – Clouds are HA Environments. Public cloud deployments, particularly with leading cloud providers, are high availability environments where application downtime is negligible.

  • The Truth – Redundancy is not the same as HA.  Some cloud solutions offer some measure of data protection through redundancy. However, applications such as SQL Server and file servers still need additional configuration for automating and managing high availability and disaster recovery.

Myth #2 – Protecting business critical applications in a cloud with a cluster is impossible without shared storage. You cannot provide HA for Windows applications in a cloud using Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) to create a cluster because it requires a shared storage device, such a SAN. A SAN to support WSFC is not offered in public clouds, such as Amazon EC2 and Windows Azure.

  • The Truth – You can provide high availability protection for Windows applications in a cloud simply by adding SANless cluster software as an ingredient and configuring a WSFC environment. The SANless software synchronizes local storage in the cloud through real-time, block level replication, providing applications with immediate access to current data in the event of a failover.

Myth #3 – Remote replication isn’t needed for DR. Applications and data are protected from disaster in the cloud without additional configuration.

  • The Truth – Cloud providers experience downtime and regional disasters like any other large organization. While providing high availability within the cloud will protect data centers from normal hardware failures and other unexpected outages within an availability zone (Amazon) or fault domain (Azure), data centers still need to protect against regional disasters. The easiest solution is to configure a multisite (geographically separated) cluster within a cloud and extend it by adding an additional node(s) in an alternate datacenter or different geographic region.

Myth #4 – Using the cloud is “all or nothing.”

  • The Truth: Companies can use the on-premise datacenter as its primary datacenter and cloud as the hot standby DR site. DR configurations can be assembled from a single on-premise server that includes a remote cluster member hosted in the cloud. Or, the on-premise configuration could be a traditional SAN based cluster that includes a remote cluster member hosted in a cloud. Both approaches are very cost effective alternatives to building out a separate DR site, or renting rack space in a business continuity facility.

Myth #5 – HA in a cloud has to be costly and complicated.

  • The Truth: A cluster for high availability in a cloud can be easily created using SANless clustering software with an intuitive configuration interface that lets users create a standard WSFC in a cloud without specialized skills. SANless clustering software also eliminates the need to buy costly enterprise edition versions of Windows applications to get high availability and added disaster protection or as described in Myth 4, to eliminate the need to build out a remote recovery site.

iGartner Says Cloud Computing Will Become the Bulk of New IT Spend by 2016.(http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2613015) iiGartner Hype Cycle for IT Service Continuity Management, 2014.  September 10, 2104.  Analysts:  John P Morency, Carl Claunch, Pushan Rinnen  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.

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

Press Release: SIOS Webinar Featuring Microsoft Clustering MVP Provides Insights about Building Windows Clusters to Protect SQL Server in Cloud Configurations

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SAN MATEO, CA – September 24, 2014 – SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced a live webinar featuring Microsoft Clustering MVP, Dave Bermingham who will review innovative SQL Server cluster configurations that allow enterprises to leverage the flexibility and cost savings of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure and other cloud environments.

The live webinar “SQL Clustering 101: Building Clusters to Protect SQL Server in Cloud Configurations” will be held on Tuesday, September 30, 2014 at 10:00a PST / 1:00p EST.

To register, please visit: us.sios.com/2014-09-webinar/

Attendees will learn how to create a SQL cluster in a cloud to provide high availability or use a cloud to provide full disaster recovery for an on premise cluster without the cost of a DR site. David will discuss the challenges that these configurations are addressing in real world enterprises and provide expert insight into how to choose the configuration that is best for a SQL Server environment.

David Bermingham is recognized within the technology community as a high availability expert and has been honored by his peers by being elected to be a Microsoft MVP in Clustering since 2010. David’s work as director, technical evangelist at SIOS Technology Corp., has him focused on evangelizing Microsoft high availability and disaster recovery solutions as well as providing hands on support, training and professional services for cluster implementations. David holds numerous technical certifications and draws from more than twenty years of experience in IT, including work in the finance, healthcare and education fields, to help organizations design solutions to meet their high availability and disaster recovery needs. David has recently begun speaking on deploying highly available SQL Servers in the Azure Cloud and deploying Azure Hybrid Cloud for disaster recovery. Learn more at www.us.sios.com.

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.

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.

Contacts

Winkowski Public Relations, LLC for SIOS
Beth Winkowski, 978-649-7189
bethwinkowski@us.sios.com

Press Release: SIOS Sponsors “SQL PASS First Timers Session”

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SAN MATEO, CA – August 13, 2014 – SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced that it is sponsoring SQL PASS 1st Timers Webcast 2013 Edition presented by Microsoft MVP, Denny Cherry. This webinar is designed for first time attendees of the PASS Summit 2014 conference for SQL Server professionals. Denny will provide key insights on how to get the most value from the conference and he will share practical advice about attending key events in the November conference in Seattle.

The webinar will be held on Wednesday August 20th, 2014 at 11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern / 6pm (1800) GMT. Register here: http://discover.us.sios.com/2014-08-webinar-denny-cherry-sql-pass-first-timers-session.html

“During this session I’ll be talking about the things you need to know if this is your first PASS Summit,” said Denny Cherry.  “I’ll tell you where the must-see things are, and of course, I’ll be announcing this year’s SQL Karaoke party including sponsor, location and where to check in for PASS Summit 2014.

Denny Cherry is the owner and principal consultant of Denny Cherry & Associates Consulting and has over a decade of experience working with platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Hyper-V, vSphere and Enterprise Storage solutions. Denny’s areas of technical expertise include system architecture, performance tuning, security, replication and troubleshooting. Denny currently holds several of the Microsoft Certifications related to SQL Server for versions 2000 through 2008 including the Microsoft Certified Master as well as being a Microsoft MVP for several years. Denny has written several books and dozens of technical articles on SQL Server management and how SQL Server integrates with various other technologies.

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.

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.

Contacts

Winkowski Public Relations, LLC for SIOS
Beth Winkowski, 978-649-7189
bethwinkowski@us.sios.com

Press Release: SIOS Webinar to Address Optimizing Cost Savings and High Availability Protection for Postgres with EnterpriseDB and SIOS Clustering Software

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SAN MATEO, Calif. — SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced a live webinar featuring EnterpriseDB’s Principal Sales Engineer, Brian Barryman and SIOS’ clustering expert Tony Tomarchio. They will describe how SANLess clusters are delivering the ease of use, cost savings, and high availability protection needed to make Postgres and PostgreSQL deployments enterprise ready.

The live webinar, “Optimizing Cost Savings and High Availability Protection for Postgres with EnterpriseDB and SIOS Clustering Software,” will be held on August 13, 2014 at 10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT.

To register, please visit: http://discover.us.sios.com/2014-08-webinar-optimizing-cost-savings-and-high-availability-protection-for-postgres-with-edb-and-sios.html

This webinar will address:

  • What workloads are best suited for introducing Postgres into an environment
  • The success milestones for evaluating the “when and how” of expanding Postgres deployments
  • Easy, cost efficient strategies for delivering high availability and disaster protection for deployments of EnterpriseDB’s Postgres Plus Advanced Server and PostgreSQL
  • Key advances in recent Postgres releases that support new data types and evolving data challenges

This presentation is intended for strategic IT and business decision-makers involved in data infrastructure decisions and cost-savings.

About the Presenters

As SIOS’ Director of Field Engineering, Tony Tomarchio is responsible for defining and delivering technical pre-sales services, support and best practices to SIOS customers, prospects and partners. Tony has more than a decade of experience providing systems management and high availability solutions to enterprise customers. Prior to joining SIOS, Tony served as the global sales engineering lead for the Oracle systems management practice.

Principal Sales Engineer with EnterpriseDB, Brian Berryman has more than twenty-five years of IT architecture, development, operations and management experience, with strong concentrations in database and application architectures, network & business systems design and implementation, and advanced performance tuning. Before joining EnterpriseDB, Brian held systems architect positions within Oracle and Sybase, and a variety of other senior technical leadership positions. He is a seasoned database engineer, with professional certifications in Oracle, Sybase, and PostgreSQL.

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.

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.

Contacts

Winkowski Public Relations, LLC for SIOS
Beth Winkowski, 978-649-7189
bethwinkowski@us.sios.com

Press Release: Survey Results from SIOS Technology Reveal Providing High Availability and Disaster Protection for SQL Server Poses a Variety of Challenges for Enterprise Data Centers

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SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced the results of its premier SQL Server High Availability survey of large corporations in the United States (76%) and Europe (9%). The survey elicited responses from 191 IT professionals across a wide range of vertical industries to understand current trends and challenges related to providing high availability (HA) and disaster protection (DR) for SQL Server.

Specific areas covered by the survey, included identifying the most important challenges to providing HA and DR; understanding the costs of HA and DR for SQL Server; and determining the plans and priorities for 2014/2015.

The following are key findings based on the survey results:

  • Improving SQL Server performance is a top priority for 43 percent of respondents.
  • Rising costs are a significant challenge for SQL HA and DR. The most important challenges (rated significant or somewhat problematic) to providing HA and DR for SQL were: the rising cost of SQL licensing (71 percent), the cost of SAN storage
    (68 percent), SAN configuration limitations (69 percent).
  • Licensing costs have risen sharply since the introduction of SQL 2012. For nearly one third (30 percent) of respondents, licensing cost increases were either significant (20-30 percent increase annually) or dramatic (>30 percent annually).
  • SQL Enterprise Edition for HA and DR. The reason most companies (68 percent) purchased SQL Server Enterprise Edition instead of more cost-effective SQL Server Standard Edition was for HA and DR features.
  • Shared storage (SANs) slowed SQL performance for more than half of respondents (51 percent).
  • Need for flexibility. Most respondents (73 percent) want flexibility to use any type of storage as part of a cluster configuration without the limitations of a SAN.
  • SQL in the cloud. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondent would run SQL in the cloud provided that they have failover cluster protection.

“In today’s enterprise SQL Server environments traditional shared storage adds significant cost, often causes slow SQL performance, and limits configuration flexibility, making them impossible or impractical in cloud, hybrid cloud and high performance storage environments,” explained Jerry Melnick, COO of SIOS Technology Corp.  “Companies should consider SANLess cluster solutions that not only eliminate the cost of SAN hardware and administration, but also provide HA and DR protection in the cloud, high performance SSD and mixed environments.”

For more details, interested parties can download the full survey report here:  http://discover.us.sios.com/asset-reg-whitepaper-sql-server-high-availability-survey-2014.html

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