{"id":33672,"date":"2019-12-05T11:41:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T11:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/?p=33672"},"modified":"2019-12-09T08:59:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T08:59:00","slug":"bezeq-displaces-all-flash-array-for-data-warehouse-infrastructure-with-excelero-nvmesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2019\/12\/05\/bezeq-displaces-all-flash-array-for-data-warehouse-infrastructure-with-excelero-nvmesh\/","title":{"rendered":"Bezeq displaces all-flash array for data warehouse infrastructure with Excelero NVMesh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bezeq, a leading telecommunications provider in Israel, has cut its database run times up to 90% and boosted throughput 2x-3x after deploying simple, scalable Excelero NVMesh shared NVMe storage.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezeq, a leading\ntelecommunications provider based in Israel, has deployed the Excelero NVMesh\nas the centrepiece of a new scale-out storage architecture behind its\nmission-critical data warehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacing a high-end all-flash\narray with the simplicity and scale of an architecture using Excelero NVMesh\nalong with Fujitsu servers and Mellanox 100 Gbps Ethernet switches, Bezeq has achieved\na 2x to 3x throughput improvement and cut database run times by up to 90%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezeq\u2019s results with Excelero,\na disruptor in software-defined block storage, typify the advantages that NVMe\nover fabrics architectures deliver in superior throughput, ultra-low latency,\nscalability and flexibility.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezeq offers phone and Internet\nservices, smart devices, cybersecurity and cloud backup services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its data warehouse holds more\nthan 118 TB of vital data on sales, services, financial transactions,\nengineering device and customer interactions \u2013 data used to generate reports\nthat help management streamline operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data warehouse is also supporting an expansion into promising new lines of business such as high-performance computing and hosted cloud services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezeq’s previous storage solution was experiencing insufficient throughput, slow response times and an inability to be expanded, leading the IT team to seek a revamp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Excelero NVMesh software-defined technology is the only technological solution that meets our performance demands and has proven to be an excellent decision,\u201d said Muginstein Igal, Storage and Backup Team Manager at Bezeq. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a leader in the national\ncommunications market, we are on the look-out for promising new technologies. NVMesh\nis a highly advanced solution and we have quickly seen the tangible benefits of\nreplacing the complicated server with internal SSD and all-flash array with the\nsimplicity and scale of Excelero NVMesh.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new infrastructure incorporates Excelero NVMesh running on a Fujistu RX4770 server, featuring 96 cores and 1TB memory, and Fujitsu RX2540 storage nodes with 4 TB NVMe drives \u2013 totalling 48 TB. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The servers are connected with\nMellanox 100 Gbps Ethernet switches and NICs. A key benefit of NVMesh was the\nflexibility to choose the most suitable and cost-effective commodity hardware\nfor Bezeq’s requirements, eliminating vendor lock-in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early trials showed that in\ncontrast to the maximum 8 Gbps throughput of the Fusion IO devices, the NVMesh\nenvironment delivered 16-23 Gbps \u2013 well above Bezeq\u2019s requested 15 Gbps\nthroughput. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Excelero storage also\nreduced run times by an average of 30% compared to the legacy all-flash array\nenvironment and, in some workloads, reduced run times up to 90%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacement was simple and\nwhile formal metrics weren\u2019t established, Bezeq\u2019s IT team detected reduced CPU\ndemand, helping it squeeze maximum compute power from existing resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The\nwinners in the new telecoms landscape will be those forward-thinking\norganisations that are most effective in extracting information from their data,”\nsaid Lior Gal, Excelero co-founder and CEO. “We are extremely proud that Excelero\u2019s\nNVMesh is exceeding the requirements of Bezeq’s data warehouse and enabling the\ncompany to run its day-to-day operations with an important competitive\nedge.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intelligent Data Centres<\/em><\/strong> spoke\nto Muginstein Igal, Storage and Backup Team Manager at Bezeq, to find out more\nabout the solution and its benefits. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you\nprovide some background on Bezeq and its company objectives?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezeq is\nIsrael’s leading telecommunications service provider. Established in 1984, the company\nhas led Israel into the new era of telecommunications, based on the most\nadvanced technologies and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezeq fixed-line\noffers domestic services including Internet infrastructure services, basic\ntelephony, transmission and data communications as well as cloud and digital\nservices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fixed line\ninfrastructure comprises an NGN (Next Generation Network) \u2013 FTTC (Fiber to the\nCurb) network \u2013 with approximately 1.8 million access lines and tens of\nthousands of fibre-optic lines, allowing for the delivery of a full range of\nvalue-added services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezeq has\ninstalled more than 1.6 million high-speed retail and wholesale broadband lines\nand enables broadband high-speed services, advanced IP telephony and OTT TV\nservices. Broadband services over the NGN network can reach up to 100 Megabits\nper second and enable consumers to enjoy the most advanced telecommunications\nand content services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were\nthe key challenges Bezeq was looking to address ahead\nof selecting Excelero?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted the\nflexibility to expand the storage layer of our DWH infrastructure. We also\nwanted performance improvement, to reduce our OPEX and CAPEX, prevent lock into\nhardware vendor and establish a new storage shared layer for new applications\nwith high performance demands (instead of internal devices without sharing and\nprotection).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did you choose to work with Excelero and why\ndid you opt for this specific solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Excelero\nsolution was the only one we found to fit our performance demands (at least\n15GBytes\/sec) based on block storage. Excelero provided the flexibility to\nchoose the most suitable and cost-effective commodity hardware for Bezeq’s\nrequirements, eliminating vendor lock-in. The company also offered collaboration\nwith the local development team and made adjustments to our OS and DB\nplatform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How was the implementation process \u2013 did you encounter any\nchallenges, if so, how were these resolved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main\nchallenge was to adjust a modern solution like NVMESH to a relatively low OS\nversion and Oracle version. The Excelero team developed a special version for\nthose limitations (only RAID 10 instead of RAID 5) that could be configured\nwith higher versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How far has\nthe system future-proofed the organisation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greater\nquestion is that of meeting the company’s future needs and we considered those\nwhen we designed the system on one hand and when we scouted for the right\ntechnology on the other hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had already\nmigrated our central storage to all flash array and applications like DWH, that\ndemand high performance, will be established on Excelero infrastructure (NVMe\nstorage devices). We can achieve the same high-level\nperformance of local NVMe devices over centralised, redundant\nnetworked storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do your\ncustomers benefit from the solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have\nestablished high performance DRP for DWH (lower cost and same performance as\nproduction environment) as well as reduced run times by an average of 30%\ncompared to internal Fusion IO devices or the legacy all-flash array environment,\nand in some workloads, reduced run times up to 90%<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there\nany trends\/emerging trends you expect to see in the data storage space of which\ninfrastructure managers should be aware?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that modern data centre storage infrastructure has to be based on\nall flash array for traditional loads and scalable high-performance NVME-over\nfabric for high performance applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second trend\nwe expect will be object storage for unstructured data and backup silos.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New NAS\nsolutions have to combine high performance and collaboration needs (we\nimplemented CTERA solution \u2013 software with flash devices and internet access to\nportal with object storage). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combination of\nstorage and backup products for CDP demands, instant recovery, WORM solutions\n(software with object storage)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary,\nwhat are the key benefits of the solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

High\nperformance, cost-savings, simplicity and scalability, and eliminating hardware\nvendor lock-in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bezeq, a leading telecommunications provider in Israel, has cut its database run times up to 90% and boosted throughput 2x-3x after deploying simple, scalable Excelero NVMesh shared NVMe storage. Bezeq, a leading telecommunications provider based in Israel, has deployed the Excelero NVMesh as the centrepiece of a new scale-out storage architecture behind its mission-critical data […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":36035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,51,55,140,93,24],"tags":[6007,13394,13395,239,13396,494],"class_list":["post-33672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-case-study-newsletter","category-data-centres","category-networking","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-bezeq","tag-data-warehouse","tag-data-warehouseinfrastructure","tag-israel","tag-nvme","tag-telecommunications"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33672"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36049,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33672\/revisions\/36049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}