Monday 13 November 2017

Nimble Storage - InfoSight Proactive Capacity Management



Business loves data. It’s probably the one constant that remains unchanged in a world otherwise replete with it, and today is different only in so much as the amount of data we regularly keep and shuffle from system to system…in fact it could be said that data has never been more important.

In our hyper connected world, where almost everything we do online is tracked, catalogued and stored to be served up at a moment’s notice, where and how that data is stored can very often mean the difference between success and failure, with the term ‘spinning wheel of death’ taking on a far more literal meaning for organisations who get this decision wrong…Speed is everything and delays are simply unacceptable.

The problem is that as you get more data, the complexity of storing and accessing g that data becomes an almost herculean task unless you choose the correct technology. So what is the right technology? In truth there is no real right or wrong answer to this question as the solutions available are outnumbered only by the applications they have been created to enable, but here are the offerings from Hewlett Packard Enterprise…



  • MSA: Most affordable acceleration –storage for the performance needs of small sites 
  • Simplivity: Hyperconverged –software defined infrastructure that makes hybrid IT simple 
  • Nimble: Simplest –predictive and cloud ready all flash and hybrid-flash storage
  • 3PAR: Most flexible –unified storage for the all-flash datacentre





For the purposes of this article we’re going to focus on the most recent addition to this list. Nimble.

Nimble Storage Fast 5


Why Flash and Why choose Nimble Storage?
  1. The new normal: Flash is the single biggest storage technology shift in 30 years. While performance is a given, there is a new kind of buyer who prioritizes radical simplicity over other attributes. They want simple to buy, use and upgrade, without compromising features and reliability. For these new-style buyers, Nimble Storage is THE leader in “completeness of vision” in the Gartner 2016 MQ.1
  2. Close the “app-data gap”: Businesses expect data to be instantly available. Any slow-down or disruption across the infrastructure stack (storage, networks and servers) causes an “app-data” gap that disrupts data delivery and slows down business. The Nimble Storage predictive Cloud Platform closes the app-data gap by combining predictive analytics with flash storage to provide fast and reliable access to data.
  3. Full stack predictive analytics: Over half of issues that cause the “app-data gap” do not have storage roots. InfoSight Predictive Analytics anticipate and prevent problems across the infrastructure stack and identify future needs. InfoSight gets to the root cause with zero finger pointing.
  4. Transformed support experience: InfoSight uses cloud-based analytics and machine learning to automatically resolve 86% of problems before a customer is even aware.2 Nimble Storage has achieved the industry leading Net Promoter Score (85).3 Why? Customers consistently reference the simplicity and transformed support experience.
  5. Customer Friendly Business Model: The Timeless Storage™ Guarantee, included with all Nimble Storage arrays, means all-inclusive software, flat support pricing, a satisfaction guarantee and an option for a free controller upgrade after 3 years that is at least 25% faster than your existing installed model!

These are great points but what do they actually mean to the people who use them?
  1. Predictive: InfoSight Predictive Analytics is the first and only analytics platform built into storage to predict and prevent problems across the infrastructure stack and simplify operations. It provides a transformed support experience and enables customers to avoid disruption and time wasted solving infrastructure issues.
  2. Multicloud: Ideal for hybrid IT because it provides a single architecture with unified data services, common management and mobility across all flash, hybrid flash on-premises and public cloud. Nimble Cloud Volumes is an enterprise-grade cloud storage service for AWS and Azure.
  3. Reliably Fast: High-performance and scalable all-flash, hybrid flash and secondary flash arrays with >99.9999% (six nines) measured availability across all models. Modular and simple scalability with non-disruptive scale-up and scale-out.
  4. Radically Simple: Simple to buy, install and use for IT buyers looking for a new level of self-managing and self-aware storage. Robust application plug-ins, Docker container support, and InfoSight’s detailed executive dashboards reduce provisioning and capacity planning overhead.
  5. Efficient: Industry leading flash efficiency with always on inline deduplication and compression to achieve the perfect price/performance/capacity sweet spot. Quality of Service controls enable application and storage consolidation without affecting performance.

As I said earlier, there’s no shortage of options so why chose Nimble?
  1. True predictive analytics: Infosight, with the resulting operational simplicity, is the number one reason customers choose Nimble Storage over competitors. It has allowed Nimble to achieve greater than 99.9999% measured availability across its entire installed-base. And, with machine learning, your array continually gets smarter as InfoSight learns to inoculate systems against known issues
  2. Common platform for All Flash and Hybrid Flash: Unlike Pure Storage, both Nimble and 3PAR span both all-flash and hybrid flash enabling customers to setup disaster recovery at a third of the cost. Transparently move applications between any type of array without application interruption.
  3. Cloud-ready: Nimble Cloud Volumes, an enterprise-grade storage service for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft® Azure, make Nimble arrays cloud-ready. EMC and Pure Storage are limited to on-premises storage deployments only.
  4. Efficient and scalable: Industry-leading flash efficiency with always on inline deduplication and compression to achieve up to 5X or more data reduction at the perfect price/performance/capacity sweet spot. Modular and simple scalability with non-disruptive scale-up and scale-out.

So if you had to sum it up….



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