Recently, I spoke with Jarrett Potts, my long-time friend and former IBM colleague, who now works as Director of Strategic Marketing over at STORServer. If you have never heard of STORServer, it is a company that makes purpose-built backup appliances.

• Last month, STORServer announced their [backup appliances are sold with a data recovery guarantee].
• Two weeks ago, STORServer announced [free migration services from environments running TSM verion 5 to their backup appliances based on TSM version 6].

What is a Backup Appliance? It is an integrated solution of hardware and software that serves a single purpose: backup and recovery. STORServer Enterprise Backup Appliance (EBA) combines IBM's high-end x86 M4 server, IBM disk and tape storage, and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) backup software.

(Fun Fact: The 2012 IBM year-end financial results were announced last month. IBM not only continues its #1 lead in servers overall, but has the #1 marketshare for high-end x86 servers, market-leading disk and tape storage hardware, and market leading backup software.)

To determine the appropriate size of your backup appliance, the folks at STORServer help you every step of the way. They figure out the number of TB you will backup every day, and even help configure all of the TSM server parameters to achieve the policies that make the most sense for your organization.

The appliance can backup every type of data, from databases and Virtual Machines (VMs) to documents, spreadsheets, and other unstructured data.

Are you then left with a solution too complicated to run yourself? No. The STORServer Console is an easy-to-use GUI for ongoing monitoring and maintenance. Plus, your friends at STORServer are only a phone call away in case you have any questions.

(FTC Disclosure: I work for IBM, and STORSever is an approved IBM Business Partner that uses IBM hardware and software to build their solution. I have no financial interest in STORServer, and was not paid by STORServer to mention their company or products on my blog. This post may be considered a celebrity endorsement of STORServer and its Enterprise Backup Appliances.)

Perhaps my readers feel that I am a bit biased in describing a TSM-based solution, and you want a second opinion. No worries, I understand. In the latest 165-page [2012 DCIG Backup Appliance Buyer's Guide], the STORServer models ranked very high. Here is an excerpt:

"Nowhere is this demand for purpose built appliances more evident than in the rise of purpose built backup appliances (PBBAs) over the last few years and their anticipated growth rate going forward. A recent market analysis performed by IDC found that worldwide PBBA revenue totaled $2.4 billion in 2011 which was a 42.4 percent increase over the prior year.

This scoring came into play in preparing this Buyer's Guide as the STORServer EBA 3100 model scored so highly overall that it fell outside of the two (2) standard deviations that DCIG generally uses as a guideline for inclusion and exclusion of products.

The reason DCIG included this model in this Buyer's Guide whereas in other situations it might not is that DCIG is unaware of any other backup appliance(s) from any other providers that come close to matching the EBA 3100's software and hardware attributes. As such, DCIG felt it would be doing STORServer specifically and the market generally a disservice by not highlighting in this Buyer's Guide that such a backup appliance existed and was generally available for purchase."

	Backup Appliance Models	Score	Ranking
1.	STORServer EBA 3100	91.70	ENTERPRISE
2.	Symantec NetBackup 5220 Backup Appliance	87.11	Recommended
3.	STORServer EBA 2100	86.90	Recommended
4.	STORServer EBA 1100	85.70	Recommended
5.	STORServer EBA 800	85.60	Recommended
6.	Symantec Backup Exec 3600 Appliance	78.83	Excellent
7.	Unitrends Recovery-823	76.55	Excellent
8.	RackTop EBR-FE	76.50	Excellent
9.	Unitrends Recovery-833	76.25	Excellent
10.	Unitrends Recovery-822	76.15	Excellent

The STORServer is ideal for small and medium-sized business (SMB), but can scale quite large to handle business growth. If you are currently unhappy with your current backup environment, and feel now is the time to look around for a better way of taking backups, you won't go wrong choosing a solution based on IBM's market-leading server and storage hardware with Tivoli Storage Manager software.

technorati tags: IBM, System Storage, Tivoli Storage Manager, STORServer

Tags:  storserver tivoli+storage+manager system+storage ibm

Well, it was Tuesday again, and we had quite a lot of announcements here at IBM this week! Over 1,800 clients attended the [Live February 5 webcast]! The announcements were all part of IBM's SmartCloud Storage portfolio. Here are the highlights:

STN7800 Real-time Compression Appliance

Back in October 2010, IBM announced the acquisition of Storwize, Inc., renaming its NAS-compression units to the IBM Real-time Compression appliances. Some folks were confused, so I had a blog post [IBM Storwize Product Name Decoder Ring]. IBM initially offered two models:

• The [STN6500 model] had 16 Ethernet ports 1GbE (16x1GbE) and a pair of four-core processors.
• The [STN6800 model] had either eight 10GbE ports (8x10GbE), or four 10GbE plus eight 1GbE ports (4x10GbE+8x1GbE). It has a pair of six-core processors.

Now, IBM offers the [STN7800 model], which can replace either of the ones above, offering 16x1GbE, 8x10GbE, and 4x10GbE+8x1GBE port configurations. It has a pair of eight-core processors to handle more robust Cloud Storage environments. See [Announcement Letter 113-012] for more details.

New XIV Gen3 model 214

With its awesome support for VMware, the XIV is often chosen for Cloud storage. The new XIV model 214 now offers up to a dozen 10GbE ports, or you can stay with the 22 1GbE ports available on previous models. These can be used for iSCSI host attachment and/or IP-based replication.

IBM strives to make each new model of every storage device more energy efficient than the last. The new XIV model is no exception. The original XIV, introduced in 2008, consumed 8.4 kVA fully loaded. The XIV Gen 3 model 114 consumed 7.0 kVA. This new model 214 consumes only 5.9 kVA!

It has been almost three years since my now infamous post [Double Drive Failure Debunked: XIV Two Years Later]. Back then, the XIV offered only 1TB and 2TB drives, with rebuild time for 1TB drive of less than 30 minutes, and for 2TB less than 60 minutes.

The new XIV Gen3 software 11.2 release, available for both the 114 and 214 models, can now rebuild a 2TB drive in less than 26 minutes, and a 3TB drive in less than 39 minutes. There is also support specific to Windows Server 2012 including thin provisioning, MSCS, VSS, and Hyper-V. See [Announcement Letter 113-013] for more details.

SmartCloud Storage Access

IBM is the first major storage vendor to offer a product of this kind, so understanding it may be a bit difficult.

The concept is simple. Rather than having end-users having to ask IT every time they need some storage space, IBM created a self-service portal that frees up the IT department to work on more important transformational projects.

This is basically what people can do with "Public Cloud" storage service providers, so basically IBM is now giving you the capability with your "Private Cloud" storage deployment.

Here is the sequence of events. End users point their favorite web browser to the self-service portal, and login using their credentials stored in your Active Directory or LDAP server database.

Once validated, the end-user now can request new storage space, expanding their existing space, or returning the space to the IT department. For new storage requests, users can have a choice of storage classes, -- such as Gold, Silver and Bronze-- defined in the Tivoli Storage Productivity Center (TPC), either stand-alone or in the SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center.

But wait! Do you want to give every end-user a blank check to provision their own storage? Most IT staff are horrified at the thought.

Knowing this, IBM has included an option to put in an approval process, based on the end-user and the amount of capacity requested. The approver can be the cloud administrator, or someone delegated for approvals, known as an environment owner.

For some users, policies may restrict the storage classes as well. For example, Fred can only have Silver or Bronze, but not Gold.

Once the approval is obtained, TPC then issues the appropriate commands to the appropriate SONAS or Storwize V7000 Unified device. SmartCloud Storage Access can do this for thousands of storage devices across dozens of geographically dispersed locations.

Before, the Cloud Admin had to configure storage pools of managed disks, define file systems, dole out file sets to hundreds or thousands of users with hard quotas, and then configure shares based on the protocols required, like CIFS, NFS, HTTPS, etc.

With SmartCloud Storage Access, the Cloud admin still defines the pools and file systems, but then lets the self-service capability of the software to create the file sets, set the quotas and configure shares with the appropriate protocols. This greatly reduces the work on the IT staff, and greatly improves the turn-around time for end-user requests to get exactly what they want, when they need it.

The next time you withdraw money from an ATM machine, fill up your gas tank at the self-service gas station, then serve your own salad at the salad bar and fill up your own soft drink at the fast food restaurant, you will realize and appreciate that SmartCloud Storage Access is a brilliant move for the IT staff.

Cloud administrators, environment owners, and end-users can all use SmartCloud Storage Access to monitor and report on storage usage.

See [Announcement Letter 213-087] for more details.

For more information on these announcements, check out the [IBM Smarter Storage landing page].

For a different perspective on this, consider Dave Vallente's thoughts on Wikibon, in his [Message to IBM's Ambuj Goyal: A Prescription for Storage Transformation]. Ironically, Ambuj Goyal was my fifth-line manager for the past two years, but since he took this new job leading Storage and System Networking, he is no longer in my management chain.

technorati tags: IBM, SmartCloud, Storage Access, XIV, STN7800

Tags:  stn7800 storage+access ibm smartcloud xiv

Wrapping up last week's theme on [New Year's Resolutions] to Eat Less and Exercise More. Yesterday, I talked about [tracking your diet], in this post, I will discuss tools to track your exercise and results.

(Note: I am neither a medical doctor nor registered dietician. I can share with you ideas that have worked for me, that might help you achieve your goals. I strongly suggest you read books and consult with medical experts as necessary.)

Back in 2009, studies found that [exercise alone does not lead to weight loss]. I had been working out at a gym, three times a week with a personal trainer, for six years, but was the same weight as when I started.

Much to the chagrin of my personal trainer, the article convinced me to quit the gym, discontinue her services, and focus on my diet instead. She warned I would gain 10 to 20 pounds within the year. Guess what? I didn't! I actually lost two pounds.

Here are my suggestions:

Be Patient about Weight Loss

When I grew up, we all learned that 3,500 calories equals a pound of body fat, so to lose just one pound per week, you need to eat 500 calories less than you burn every day. Many dieters get impatient, even frustrated, that they are not losing weight fast enough.

A recent study led by Diana Thomas, a professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, found that [as you lose weight, your metabolism drops].

Doing more exercise might help you build muscle, reduce stress and ligthen your mood, but it won't raise your metabolism as was once thought, nor even keep it at the levels you were at your prior weight.

But Dr. Thomas has taken the new findings and created a new [Weight Loss Estimator] that takes into account the drop in metabolism.

The example shows a 45-year old male, 200 pounds, eating 500 calories less than his normal 2,791-calorie diet. Over the course of 12 months, the tool estimates losing only 15.8 pounds, much less than one pound per week!

Moderate Exercise can be Healthful

Does this mean you should just give up on exercise altogether? No.

The trick is to do moderate exercise, which you can do in and around your home, or at a gym. The goal is to [keep your heartbeat between 105 and 134 beats per minute]. This has been found to maximize the use of your own fat stores for energy.

Using my Android smartphone, I like the apps from [VirtuaGym]:

• [Fitness Home & Gym]. This app has a variety of workout circuits such as calisthentics and weight-lifting that you can easily follow. An avatar demonstrates how to perform each exercise, and does them with you to keep the pace. Here is an example [2-minute YouTube video] to show the app in action.
  
  
• [Cardio GPS]. This app is for cardio activities, such as walking, cycling, hiking, jogging and running. The GPS keeps track of your location, determines your speed, and the distance you travelled.

Both apps allow you to upload your activites to their website. This allows you to track which activities you did when, and share your progress with your friends on Facebook.

My favorite low-impact cardio exercise is simply walking. I start up my Cardio GPS app, put on my noise-cancelling headphones, and listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks on my iPod music player. I like the [Freakonomics Podcast] series.

To help me keep my iPod charged and loaded with the latest podcasts, my friends over at [Startech.com] sent me two iPod cables last month for my birthday. Sweet!

• The white one on the left for home use is two feet long, and has a 90-degree neck on the connector side so that my iPod can be propped up against a stack of books while I sync up my music and podcasts.
  
  
• The black one on the right for travel has both iPod and micro-USB connections, so that I can use it with both my iPod and my Samsung Galaxy smartphone!

Determine the Right Metrics to Measure

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it."
-- Peter Drucker

Tracking the right metric is important. Here are some metrics, and why they are useful or not.

• Body weight. The problem with measuring pounds is that this combines muscle weight that you want more of, and body fat that you want less of. Dieters who exercise often lose very little weight, some gain. This can be a misleading measure of progress.
  
  
• Body Mass Index. BMI is [calculated from your weight and height]. What do fellow actors George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Tony Pearson have in common? We all have BMI indexes over 25, and therefore deemed unhealthy. Ha!

  Richard Alleyne from the Telegraph has a great article on this. Here is an excerpt:

  "A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight and one of 30 or above is considered obese.
  ...
  People with BMIs between 19 and 22 live longest. Death rates are noticeably higher for people with indexes 25 and above.
  ...
  BMI does not identify how fat is distributed on the body. Storing more fat on the waist is a higher risk for cardiovascular disease, than storing it mostly elsewhere. "

  For me, my doctor is happy with any index less than 27.

• Waist-to-Hip Ratio. This is simply the [the ratio of the circumference of your waist to that of your hips]. This is the measurement I track, as it focuses on the unhealthy body fat around my belly rather than in other areas. Men should aim for 0.9, while women should aim for 0.7 instead.

(FTC Disclosure: I work for IBM. I do not have any financial interest in, nor have been paid to mention any other companies, products or services on this blog post. Per FTC guidelines, this post can be considered a celebrity endorsement of cables from Startech.com, who provided me the cables at no charge.)

If you have resolved to lose weight, get fit, manage stress, or sleep better, and this series of posts has given you ideas or helped you in any way, I would love to hear about it. Please post a comment below!

I am still in the black-out period waiting for IBM to announce its results, so I will continue last week's theme on [New Year's Resolutions] to Eat Less and Exercise More.

(Note: I am neither a medical doctor nor registered dietician. I can share with you ideas that have worked for me, that might help you achieve your goals. I strongly suggest you read books and consult with medical experts as necessary.)

Last week, I offered ideas to [help you find the right diet], and [my experiences with different diets]. In this post, I will focus on tools available to track your diet.

Determine your Dietary Needs

How much food do you need to eat every day?

Take, for example, this group of fruits and vegetables. This is my week's haul from my local food co-op [Bountiful Baskets]: Avocados, Papayas, Potatoes, Strawberries, Grape Tomatoes, Oranges, Apples, Carrots, and Lemons.

So how many grams of Carbs, Fats and Proteins in this set? This has 1,026 grams of carbs, 78 grams of Fats, and 99 grams of protein, for a total of 4,875 calories.

On my diet, I am trying to have at least 90 grams of protein, but less than 150 grams of carbs, per day. While the fruits and veggies represent a full week's worth of carbs for me, it is only one day's worth of Protein.

How did I determine my dietary requirements?

According to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], the minimum amount male adults need is 56 grams of protein per day to avoid protein deficiency. However, an article in [Men's Health] provides more insight. Here's an excerpt:

"Most adults would benefit from eating more than the recommended daily intake of 56 grams, says Donald Layman, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Illinois. The benefit goes beyond muscles, he says: Protein dulls hunger and can help prevent obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Now, if you're trying to lose weight, protein is still crucial. The fewer calories you consume, the more calories should come from protein, says Layman. You need to boost your protein intake to between 0.45 and 0.68 gram per pound to preserve calorie-burning muscle mass."

For men who weigh between 135 and 200 pounds, like me, the 90 grams of protein is within this guideline.

To lose weight, I need to eat fewer carbs than my body requires. Here is an excerpt from Paul Jaminet on [Perfect Health Diet]:

"So the body's net glucose needs are on the order of 600 to 800 calories per day.

For most people, we suggest 400 to 600 carb calories per day, about 200 less than the body utilizes. The remainder is made up by gluconeogenesis -- manufacture of glucose from protein."

Since carbs are 4 calories per gram, then 400-600 calories equates to 100-150 grams of carbs per day. On some days, I eat less than 100 grams of carbs, but I would rather err on the low side than the high side over 150 grams.

Tracking your Dietary Intake

It is not always easy to estimate the amount of carbs, Fats and Proteins at any given meal. If you want to stay within the guidelines above, at least initially to get started on your new diet, track your dietary intake. If you have a smartphone, there are apps that can take the guesswork out of eating.

For my Android-based phone, I use [Calorie Counter] by FatSecret. I can enter the foods that I eat at each meal, whether I am at home, at work, or eating out at a restaurant. It can help me decide between one choice and another, for example, or just let me know if I had enough for the day, or need to keep eating.

Here is a typical day. Notice that I had over 90 grams of Protein, but less than 150 grams of carbs.

Many restaurants now accommodate the low-carb, gluten-free diet. At Romano's Macaroni Grill, I asked them to substitute the pasta for some veggie, and they came out with grilled chicken and sautéed spinach with garlic. It was delicious!

At many hamburger places, you can ask for your burger "low-carb" or "protein-style" so that they replace the bun with lettuce leaves. You can eat this with your hands, or with fork and knife.

When I was in chef school, I learned what needed to be measured precisely, and what didn't. Over time, as you track your diet, you will find that you will be able to estimate the amount of each food item.

(FTC Disclosure: I work for IBM, and am a volunteer member of Bountiful Baskets co-op. I have no financial interest in, nor have I been paid to promote, any of the other companies or their products mentioned on this blog post.)

If you have come up with your own unique ways of meeting your dietary requirements and/or tracking your dietary intake, please post in the comments below!