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April 16, 2015: Live Webinar: Deploying Applications in Azure without Configuration Limitations

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In this webinar, Microsoft MVP William Bressette will describe innovative cloud and hybrid configurations that companies are using to leverage the benefits of Azure cloud computing. He will discuss ways to overcome factors that may limit configuration flexibility – such as shared storage clustering for high availability protection. Learn how to deploy important applications, such as SQL Server in on-premises to cloud, cloud to cloud, and all cloud configurations without sacrificing high availability, performance, or disaster protection.

This webinar is interactive so come ready to ask your questions, add your comments, and join the discussion.

Register Now

Date: Thursday April, 16th 2015
Time: 10:00a / 1:00p (Pacific/Eastern)

About William Bresette
William Bressette is a Microsoft Certified Professional since 1998 and a Microsoft Most Valued Professional in Failover Clustering and he holds technical certifications from a number of vendors including Juniper Networks as a JNCIS and HP as a Master ASE in High Availability and Clustering Solutions. William is a Network Architect with a professional services company in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). For the last 15 years, he has worked with medium enterprises on networking, design and upgrade projects.

Data Center Post: Epicure Selections Achieves High Availability and Disaster Recovery Protection for Critical SQL Server Applications with SIOS Sanless Clustering Software

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Epicure Selections is using SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition software to easily and cost-efficiently provide HA and DR protection for its business-critical SQL Server applications without the complexity of building out a remote DR site or purchasing costly SQL Server Enterprise Edition licenses. SANLess Clustering

Epicure, Canada’s leading direct sales company, sells healthy, easy-to-prepare food products through a network of over 16,000 consultants.

Epicure relies on two websites for its critical business operations. Its public website provides product, company, and consultant enrolment information to customers and people interested in becoming a consultant. The internal website provides consultants with important product information and enables them to place orders.

The company uses two instances of SQL Server Standard Edition—one for each website running on a single server. “Our websites are vital to our business,” said Russell Born, Senior Network Infrastructure Administrator at Epicure.

As the company grew and expanded its products and services, the Epicure IT department needed to update and protect its business-critical websites from downtime. It decided to move both websites from a third-party hosted facility to its on-premises data center and Amazon Web Services. “The business is growing and we needed to ensure our website delivers an excellent user experience for our customers and consultants,” said Born.

As part of this update, Epicure wanted an efficient, cost-effective way to provide high availability and disaster protection for both websites while continuing to run them on two instances of SQL Server Standard Edition. “We didn’t want the added expense of moving to SQL Server Enterprise Edition if we could provide HA and DR with Standard Edition,” Born said.

Using SIOS SANLess clustering software, Epicure IT staff created a two-node cluster in an active-passive failover configuration that enables each SQL instance to failover independently. One cluster node is in the on-premises data center and the second node is in an instance of the AWS EC2 cloud. Epicure IT staff created the SIOS SANLess clusters and configured them using the software’s intuitive graphical user interface.

The SIOS software provides Epicure with an easy, cost-efficient way to provide HA and DR protection for its business-critical SQL Server applications without the complexity of building out a remote DR site or purchasing costly SQL Server Enterprise Edition licenses. “The SIOS software has allowed us to create a hybrid solution providing additional cost savings of running on-premises with the reliability and flexibility of running in the cloud,” said Born. “Knowing that a website outage will result in an automatic failover allows our IT Team to focus their attention on other priorities to strengthen our business.”

About the Author:

Jerry Melnick
COO, SIOS Technology Corp.

Jerry Melnick (jmelnick@us.sios.com) is responsible for defining corporate strategy and operations at SIOS Technology Corp., maker of SIOS SAN and #SANLess cluster software. He more than 25 years of experience in the enterprise and high availability software industries. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Beloit College with graduate work in Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Boston University.

Read this article at Data Center Post

Storage Newsletter: Spirent Communications Provides HA in Cloud With SIOS

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SIOS Technology Corp., maker of SAN and SANLess clustering software products, announced that Spirent Communications plc is using its DataKeeper Cluster Edition to protect its business critical applications in the Amazon EC2 cloud.

Because the SIOS software is integrated with Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC), it did not add complexity and was easy for Spirent IT staff to deploy.

Spirent is a specialist in communications test and measurement with 20 locations in 15 countries worldwide. The company develops hardware and software solutions and test methodologies for the communications industry.The Spirent IT department is looking for ways to improve efficiency and maintain high QoS to customers. They recognized that moving their operations to the Amazon cloud would provide benefits.

“We saw an opportunity to gain significant flexibility, scalability, and efficiency by moving to the Amazon EC2 cloud,” said Sohamn Chatterjee, senior business systems architect, Spirent. “This move lets us grow quickly and apply additional IT resources as our needs change.”

For the move to the cloud to be successful, Spirent IT staff needed to provide HA for its Siebel Gateway Server and File Server application environments.

“We could not move important applications to the cloud until we were sure that we would not be putting them at risk for downtime or data loss,” said Chatterjee. “The traditional shared storage clusters that we would have used in a physical environment require shared storage, which is not available in EC2.”

Spirent chose SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition to protect its business critical applications. They built two-node clusters in the cloud using standard WSFC and adding SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition software as an ingredient. The SIOS software uses real-time replication to synchronize storage between instances in different availability zones, making them appear to WSFC as a SAN.

“We were able to configure the clusters just as we would in a WSFC environment so we did not need specialized skills or a SAN administrator,” said Chatterjee. “The SIOS software enabled us to implement our move to the cloud efficiently.”

The SIOS software provided the protection Spirent needed to move its important applications to the cloud. Since their cluster deployment, they have not experienced any downtime or data loss in their Siebel or File Server environments. They have also found the SIOS SANLess clusters make failover/failback testing fast and easy.

“We are very pleased with the SIOS software and the protection our SIOS SANLess clusters provide for both our Siebel Gateway Server and File Server application environments in the Amazon EC2 cloud,” said Chatterjee.

“An essential ingredient in any cluster solution, SIOS SAN and SANLess clustering software provides the flexibility to build clusters to protect any choice of Windows or Linux environment and any configuration (or combination) of physical, virtual and cloud (public, private, and hybrid) storage, without sacrificing performance or availability,” said Jerry Melnick, COO, SIOS. “We are very impressed with Spirent’s innovative use case with two node clusters in the cloud.”

Press Release: SIOS Webinar Will Discuss High Availability Options for Microsoft SQL Server in Virtual and Cloud Environments

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SAN MATEO, CA – March 12, 2015 – SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced a live webinar featuring Microsoft MVP, MCM and MCSM Denny Cherry that will discuss some of the high availability options available for Microsoft SQL Server in virtual server and cloud environments.

Titled, “High Availability, Disaster Recovery, Low Cost Storage in Virtual and Cloud Environments,” this webinar will be held on Thursday, March 19 at 10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT.  To register, please visit:  http://us.sios.com/2015-03-webinar

This live, 30 minute webinar is for enterprises using SQL Server that are concerned about high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR) and low cost storage options to protect SQL data from downtime in VMware, Hyper-V, Azure, AWS, and other environments where traditional shared storage clusters are not an option. Denny will review some of the problems (both technological and financial) with these options, and how you can overcome these various problems. The webinar will conclude with a live Q&A session.

About the Speaker
Denny Cherry is the owner and principal consultant for 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 2012 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.

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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

VI Briefing: Spirent Provides High Availability for Applications in Cloud with SIOS SANLess Clusters

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SIOS software delivers high availability for Siebel Gateway Server and file server applications

SAN MATEO, CA – March 10, 2015 – SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced that Spirent is using SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition to protect its business critical applications in the Amazon EC2 cloud. Because the SIOS software is integrated with Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC), it did not add complexity and was easy for Spirent IT staff to deploy.

Spirent is a global leader in communications test and measurement with 20 locations in 15 countries worldwide. The company develops innovative hardware and software solutions and test methodologies for the communications industry. The Spirent IT department is continuously looking for ways to improve efficiency and maintain the highest quality of service to customers. They recognized that moving their operations to the Amazon cloud would provide a variety of benefits. “We saw an opportunity to gain significant flexibility, scalability, and efficiency by moving to the Amazon EC2 cloud,” said Sohamn Chatterjee, senior business systems architect, Spirent Communications. “This move lets us grow quickly and apply additional IT resources as our needs change.”

For the move to the cloud to be successful, Spirent IT staff needed to provide high availability for its Siebel Gateway Server and File Server application environments. “We could not move important applications to the cloud until we were sure that we would not be putting them at risk for downtime or data loss,” said Chatterjee. “The traditional shared storage clusters that we would have used in a physical environment require shared storage, which is not available in EC2.”

Spirent chose SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition to protect its business critical applications. They built two-node clusters in the cloud using standard WSFC and adding SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition software as an ingredient. The SIOS software uses efficient, real-time replication to synchronize storage between instances in different Availability Zones, making them appear to WSFC as a SAN.

“We were able to configure the clusters just as we would in a WSFC environment so we did not need specialized skills or a SAN administrator,” said Chatterjee. “The SIOS software enabled us to implement our move to the cloud efficiently.”

The SIOS software provided the protection Spirent needed to move its important applications to the cloud. Since their cluster deployment, they have not experienced any downtime or data loss in their Siebel or File Server environments. They have also found the SIOS SANLess clusters make failover/failback testing fast and easy. “We are very pleased with the SIOS software and the protection our SIOS SANLess clusters provide for both our Siebel Gateway Server and File Server application environments in the Amazon EC2 cloud,” said Chatterjee.

“An essential ingredient in any cluster solution, SIOS SAN and SANLess clustering software provides the flexibility to build clusters to protect any choice of Windows or Linux environment and any configuration (or combination) of physical, virtual and cloud (public, private, and hybrid) storage, without sacrificing performance or availability,” said Jerry Melnick, COO of SIOS Technology. “We are very impressed with Spirent’s innovative use case with two node clusters in the cloud.”

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

Read this article on VIBriefing.