ROI Analysis for F5 Acopia Solutions
A Closer Look at the Financial Benefits of Intelligent File Virtualization
F5 Acopia products virtualize existing file storage resources for dramatically reduced storage costs, improved resource utilization Reduction in Backup Windowand simplified storage administration. As expected, there are normally significant capital expense (CapEx) and operation expense Assumptions:(OpEx) savings associated with the use of Acopia's products, with . 10TB NAS environmentsix major areas that typically contribute to the ROI. This document will summarize each potential area and outline the basic ROI . 80% of data (8TB, or 8000GB) moved to Tier 2calculations. . 4 tape drives. 30MB/s tape speedTiered Storage 10000GB / (4 * 30MB/s) = 23.1 hr current full backup windowAcopia solutions enable storage managers to deploy tiers of file storage with adaptive ILM policies that match the business value 2000GB / (4 * 30MB/s) = 4.6 hr new full backup windowof data with the cost of storage. With F5 Acopia, customers can automatically and transparently migrate non-critical business data 23.1 hr - 4.6 hr = 18.5 hr reduction in full backup windowoff of expensive storage resources to lower cost alternatives. For example, a customer could decide to migrate all data that has not been accessed in the last six months from the primary storage to Tier 2. As the following example shows, this can result in dramatic Improved Utilizationimmediate and recurring long-term CapEx savings. File storage resources tend to be inefficiently utilized. While there may be some devices that are highly utilized, on aggregate most customers see low utilization levels of just 30-40%. This is, in large CapEx Savings from Efficient Tiering part, due to the difficulty and disruptiveness of sharing excess capacity across islands of storage resources. Acopia products allow IT Assumptions: managers to virtualize or "pool" their existing file storage resources for dramatically improved storage capacity utilization. This means . 10TB NAS environment that, instead of having to buy more storage, customers can make . 80% of data (8TB, or 8000GB) moved to Tier 2 better use of what they already have. The ROI comes from improved utilization levels of existing storage capacity.. Cost of storage: Tier 1 - $20/GB; Tier 2 - $10/GB8000GB * $10 = $80,000 immediate CapEx savings Savings from Increased Utilization Assumptions: Assumptions:. 2TB new storage purchased each year . 10TB NAS environment. Efficient storage tiering requires that 80% (1600GB) of new . 20% increase (2TB, or 2000GB) in utilization ratesstorage can be Tier 2 . Storage costs: $20/GB1600GB * $10 = $16,000 recurring CapEx savings $20 * 2000GB = $40,000 immediate savings
Assumptions:Tiered Storage-Enabled Backup . Capacity requirements increase 2TB (2000GB) each yearSavingsCustomers that deploy tiered storage environments can create . Storage capacity costs: $15/GBdifferent backup polices for the primary and secondary storage tiers, 20% * 2000GB = 400GB additional capacity each yearwhich can result in further savings. For example, primary storage can still be backed up normally (daily incrementals and weekly full $15 * 400GB = $6,000 additional savings each yearbackups) but Tier 2 can now be backed up much less frequently (weekly, monthly, etc.). Not only does this simplify backup processes and reduce media costs, but it also dramatically improves backup windows. Transparent Storage Administration Reduce Data Replication CostsAcopia solutions dramatically simplify storage administration F5 Acopia products also help reduce the cost of disaster recovery, for enterprise IT environments. Capacity management, storage allowing customers to replicate data sets from a primary data center provisioning and data migration tasks can now be done online to a disaster recovery site, without requiring additional expensive without user disruption. In addition, many tasks that used to be software licenses and maintenance fees. Equally important, F5 manual, like data migration, can now be completely automated. Acopia products can be configured to replicate based on file policy. This typically has a dramatic effect on OpEx and business operating Customers can choose to replicate all files or only files essential to efficiency. In real-world deployments, F5 Acopia customers have their business, thereby reducing network bandwidth costs. Acopia reported an av... [download for more]
