January 201 1

valueplus
presents

03 Avaya
07 SonicWall
the 10 HP Server
Q U A R T E R LY 15 Cisco
A SPECIAL PUBLICATION FROM REDINGTON GULF VALUE DIVISION

HIGHLIGHTS:
Avaya readies itself for growth
Jacky’s optimises bandwidth
with SonicWALL UTM solution
Storage in 2011
Cisco’s Unified Computing System

CHANNEL
OUTLOOK 2011
Redington is a Value Added Distributor for the following brands across the Middle East and Africa
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 03
FROM THE DIRECTOR:
DEAR PARTNERS
I
t’s the end of a decade and
what a decade it’s been for
the IT industry. If we say that
the past decade was full of
innovations and transformations,
it would not do justice to what
has happened in perhaps, the
most significant decade in the
history of the IT industry.
The next 10 years are going
to be difficult to predict but we
can be rest assured that there
is much more to come and to
do for all of us. It’s going to
be interesting as to how new
innovations in IT transform the
way we do business, interact
with customers, evaluate brands
and provide new services. In
the future, Best-in-class may
not define success but best
in communication could be a
definition for success.
The ability of organisations
to acquire, organise, analyse
and use information (both
07
15
internal and external) would be
a key differentiator for success.
Each one of us working within
different roles would need to
re-look at our contribution
to ensure our businesses
are evolving or defining the
ecosystem we operate.
For example, HR would
need more orientation towards
elements of employee satisfaction.
One element of this could
be employees enthusiasm to
evangelise about the company’s
services on social forums both
online and offline. However, there
are other departments within
the organisation who would be
interested in this information
such as Marketing. Here IT would
need to act as an enabler for
CONTENTS
02 Ramkumar’s Blog
03 Cover Feature: Avaya
07 Case Study: Jacky’s Electronics
10 Feature: HP Server
15 Analysis: CISCO
19 Redington Channel Awards
20 Redington Value Updates
capturing, storing and helping
departments use this information
for their benefit.
Redington will continue to
evolve and re-define processes
to be your preferred supply
chain service provider. Let us all
work together in 2011 to deliver
technology to the region that
makes the lives of all even better.
Wish you a decade of
prosperity and success, have a
great 2011!
Yours truly
Raj Shankar
Director, Redington Gulf
RAMKUMAR’S BLOG
Why resellers need
to specialise?
Ramkumar B, GM, Value Division,
Redington Gulf
S
pecialisation is the
name of the game
in the industry, not
today but for many
years since technology became
more and more complex and
customer needs became
even more specific. In this
region, I feel this has become
even more important and a
matter of survival today. It is
no more good enough if you
had the capability of finance
or geographic location to be
the reason to be in business,
specialisation has become the
key and going forward in the
very near future, the only reason
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
2 The ValuePlus Quarterly January 2011
business will come to you.
With this backdrop, we
as value added distributors
being the bridge between
manufacturers who invent
the technology and system
integrators/resellers who
implement the same, have
a bird’s eye view of what is
happening in the channel
and we can see the need for
resellers to urgently pick up a
specific core competence and
specialise on the same. There is
a dearth of quality skills in the
market to support some of the
latest emerging technologies
which the manufacturers are
pushing and the end customers
want to implement.
Just to give an example
- the following emerging
technologies are hot topics
doing the rounds:
• Cloud offerings
• Video as a strategy under
unified communications
• Enterprise mobility -
Security & Availability
Almost every manufacturer
is around the corner in getting
ready to offer their cloud
offerings. Cloud computing
whether internal or external
cloud is still not very well
understood or conveyed by the
IT community at large.
Video is undergoing an
unprecedented boom. Unified
communications has moved
into the “presence” era and
video is a very central theme
around this offering. Video
also is today available from
“one to one”, “one to many”
and “Enterprise wide” flavours.
The segment of
tablets and net books
is revolutionising the
computing industry. The
numbers have changed
dramatically in the last 12
months. Tablet segment
is growing very rapidly.
Securing these devices
is an entirely different
ball game compared to
securing the traditional
laptops and desktops. Also,
ensuring high availability
of enterprise applications
on these new devices is a
challenge for the clients.
With all the above three
examples, one thing is
common, these are all entirely
new concepts in the industry
with fledging demands and
manufacturers wanting to reach
their innovations quickly to the
market, but now comes the
all important question - Is the
channel ready?
It is high time, each reseller
looked into choosing one of
the areas and indeed start
building a specialisation
around it. The era of
generalists is almost over
and we can feel the same
all around us. As a VAD, we
are under constant pressure
to bring a qualified and
specialised channel to the
manufacturer who can then
depend on them to take their
products to the end user.
But today, there is a serious
gap of specialised partners
particularly in the open
space or mid market which
is incidentally the fastest
growing segment.
So, why wait, give us a call
and let us start talking what to
specialise on?
Ramkumar B
General Manager – Value
Added Business, Middle East &
Africa Redington Gulf
http://ram-valueplus.blogspot.com
 AVAYA | COVER FEATURE

Avaya readies
itself for growth
ValuePlus chats to Nidal Abou-ltaif VP – Emerging Markets at Avaya on
the vendor’s priorities for the channel in 2011 and how it will grow its
business to double digit growth.

Nidal Abou-ltaif, VP, Emerging Markets, Avaya

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com

January 2011 The ValuePlus Quarterly 3

COVER FEATURE | AVAYA
V
aluePlus Quarterly:
Avaya has been upping
the tempo with its
newly unveiled partner
programme. How has the
Middle East channel partners
embraced your new Avaya
Connect Partner programme?
NA: Adoption of Avaya’s
Connect Programme has been
very positive. The results
that our channel partners
achieved in 2010 have been
solid and the strong double
digit growth from last year is
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
4 The ValuePlus Quarterly January 2011
testimonial to the success of
the partner programme.
ValuePlus Quarterly: How has
your integration of partner
programmes gone given
that Avaya inherited Nortel
partners after the acquisition
went through?
NA: We provided Nortel
partners with an integration
roadmap, and integration
started from day one, 11
months ago. A combination
of innovative technology –
“This year, we will drive our new portfolio of video-
enabled collaboration solutions highlighted by the
Avaya FlareTM Experience, the industry’s next-
generation user experience that delivers unique
collaboration capabilities across video, voice and
text.” – Nidal Abou-Itaif, Avaya
the best product outlet from Avaya Connect programme
both companies, a competent easy.
management team, has made
the integration of Nortel ValuePlus Quarterly: How is
partners into the partner Avaya building its channel

base in the Middle East and
Africa (MEA) region?
NA: Avaya has a strong
channel base in the Middle
East. Avaya is continuously
updating its technology
certifications, business
management, increased
marketing funds and a global
partner programme to help
channel partners in the
emerging markets region to
provide innovative, real-time
business communications
and collaborative solutions
to their customers and
grow their business.
Our partners have a
strategic impact helping
enterprises reinvigorate
their business by using
open, standards-based real-
time communications and
collaboration
ValuePlus Quarterly: What do
you see as major hurdles to
growing Avaya’s solutions
offering in the Middle East?
Are challenges in KSA different
from the rest of the region?
NA: The recent economic
crises has affected
customers IT spending in
some sectors, however we
are seeing recovery signs.
Avaya has addressed that by
providing solutions that not
only cater to the customer’s
requirements but which
also save them money,
resulting in better ROI and
are cost-effective.
ValuePlus Quarterly: Which
market verticals in the Middle
East are key for Avaya’s channel
growth in 2011?
NA: Success in the banking,
telecoms, government and
hospitality industries is key for
our channel growth in 2011.
ValuePlus Quarterly: What
products or solutions will
be high on your agenda for
your channel partners in the
Middle East?
NA: 2010 saw strong
advancements in unified
communications and
collaboration, contact centre
and data networking for small
to very large businesses. This
year, we will drive our new
portfolio of video-enabled
collaboration solutions
highlighted by the Avaya
FlareTM Experience, the
industry’s next-generation
user experience that delivers
unique collaboration
capabilities across video,
voice and text. In addition,
“The Middle East is an important market for Avaya
with a strong growth potential, where companies
are relying heavily on communications solutions to
keep them closer to their customers while reducing
operating costs.” – Nidal Abou-Itaif, Avaya
the recently launched Avaya
Connect Partner HelpDesk
provides a single point of
contact for channel partners
who have questions about
Avaya’s partner programmes,
tools and services.
ValuePlus Quarterly: With
the unified communications
space becoming the most
sought after segment of IT
today, what competencies
should channel partners
be developing around your
solutions in order to bring
value to their clients?
NA: We encourage our
partners to engage in the
new technology training,
designations and skills of
Avaya’s expanded portfolio
into data and video solutions,
including our Video or Data
Authorisations, Video or
Data Expert, Avaya Certified
Solutions Architect and Avaya
Connect Video Solutions
certification.
ValuePlus Quarterly: What
would you say is the
competitive advantage that
Avaya has to offer both channel
partners and their end-user
customers in the UC space?
NA: Over 90% of Avaya’s
business is driven though
its channel partners. Avaya
has a strong presence in the
region due to its ability to
meet the changing demands
of the increasing number
of customers in the region
who work in enterprise
communications systems,
software and services.
Avaya provides innovative
collaboration solutions
offering partners and their
customers with the latest
capabilities.
Avaya supports channel
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
January 2011
AVAYA | COVER FEATURE
partners and their customers
through strong certification
programmes and its
expanded portfolio.
ValuePlus Quarterly: What
would you like to see
changing in the Middle East
UC market?
NA: The Middle East is
an important market
for Avaya with a strong
growth potential, where
companies are relying
heavily on communications
solutions to keep them
closer to their customers
while reducing operating
costs. We anticipate
significant gains as both
new and existing customers
increase investments in
their communications
infrastructures.
ValuePlus Quarterly: What
would you like to achieve
this year as Avaya with
your channel partners in the
Middle East region?
NA: Together with our
channel partners, we
anticipate growth in the
double digits in 2011.
ValuePlus Quarterly: What role
do you see Redington playing
as a Value Added Distributor
for success of Avaya in Middle
East and Africa
NA: We would like to see
Redington engage in the
training and certifications
offered through the partner
programme, driving on
Unified Communications,
data switching and the new
Avaya Flare experience in
the Middle East and Africa.
The ValuePlus Quarterly 5
 JACKY’S ELECTRONICS | CASE STUDY

From (L) Ashish Panjabi, COO, Jacky’s Electronics

and Shahnawaz Sheikh, Regional Sales Manager, SonicWall

Jacky’s optimises bandwidth

with SonicWALL UTM solution
Power retailer, Jacky’s Electronics recently improved the monitoring and controlling of its network usage
after it implemented SonicWALL’s UTM solution. The retail chain optimised its network bandwidth, saved
costs on leased lines and established content security and integrity.

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com

January 2011 The ValuePlus Quarterly 7

CASE STUDY | JACKY’S ELECTRONICS
T
he Challenge
As a growing
organisation with
branches opening
all over the UAE, Jacky’s
Electronics needed to
optimise the bandwidth of its
network around the country,
especially in its 12 retail
outlets and remote warehouse
locations. “This was our
biggest concern at the time,”
says Ashish Panjabi, Chief
Operating Officer at Jacky’s.
“We needed a solution that
would effectively optimise
bandwidth, maintain data
integrity and protect our
network against viruses and
intrusion threats.”
Jacky’s found it expensive
to keep adding new ADSL
or ISDN lines each time a
branch was opened, only to
later realise that, in some
cases, the lines were under-
utilised. Further, operating
in a country with more
than one telecom operator,
and where each operated
exclusively in various
areas, posed an additional
challenge. As Jacky’s grew
to cover the entire UAE,
Panjabi was concerned by
the frequency with which
data communication lines
were congested and business
critical information flowed at
a slower pace.
“Our business relies on
real-time transactions and
data processing, which means
that we could not afford to
have a point of sale down due
to bandwidth congestion. We
needed to control content
and protect against viruses,”
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
8 The ValuePlus Quarterly January 2011
(ROI) within Jacky’s reach.”
“Our business relies on real-time transactions and The solution, which was
deployed at 12 locations,
data processing, which means that we could not was made up of a NSA
afford to have a point of sale down due to bandwidth 4500 appliance installed at
congestion. We needed to control content and protect Jacky’s head office and a
against viruses.” – Ashish Panjabi, Jacky’s Electronics TZ180 appliance deployed
at every remote location
covering all branches and
says Panjabi. “It was essential all-in-one solution to meet warehouse locations.
for executives, managers and the company’s numerous The solution was
business decision makers requirements. After an implemented in every branch
within the company to make initial meeting and technical within a six-month period.
critical decisions, usually demonstration, Jacky’s decided Disruptions were minimal,
while travelling.” to test SonicWALL’s UTM as SonicWALL initially
Jacky’s IT team deployed solution for a brief period. deployed the solution in
various hardware and software “We set up a prototype newer branches where
solutions and tools to better network environment volumes were smaller before
manage their network traffic mirroring Jacky’s live shifting to larger, more data-
and WAN connectivity to meet environment in the intensive locations.
increasingly rigorous demand. company’s Sharjah City “SonicWALL’s UTM
United Threat Management Centre premises,” says solution allowed us to
(UTM) solutions from Shahnawaz Sheikh, monitor our network and
numerous vendors had also SonicWALL Middle East and manage content much more
been tested to varying degrees Africa (MEA) regional sales efficiently. The reports and
of success. manager. “After a few stress real time log continuously
tests, it became apparent that gave us an exact picture of
The Solution there was a high degree of what was happening. The
Jacky’s ultimately chose bandwidth optimisation and comprehensive Gateway Suite
SonicWALL, as it offered an real return on investment helped control the network
on a per-user and per-
protocol basis,” adds Panjabi.
The Results Jacky’s was then able
to instill policies and take
appropriate action to stop
• Network performance drastically enhanced deviant activity, control
through eased congestion access to unwanted Internet
• Manage content more efficiently, stop sites and block unproductive
protocols and ports to
unwanted activities and control access to maintain high network and
unwanted sites hardware integrity.
• Money saved on leased lines through The solution drastically
enhanced Jacky’s network
optimisation of bandwidth performance by easing
• Viruses and intrusion contained to establish congestion, controlling
virus infection and filtering
content security
unwanted services. Viruses
and intrusion were contained
 JACKY’S ELECTRONICS | CASE STUDY

using security tools like IPS

and gateway antivirus.
“In the first year of
operation, SonicWALL’s
solution gained us an ROI
of 15%, if the initial outlay
is considered and will bring
approximately 60%, in
the long term on savings
experienced from cost of data
lines alone,” says Panjabi.
Today, Jacky’s in a
situation where its top
managers and business
decision makers are
constantly in touch with
critical information
they require to run and
expand the business. With
SonicWALL, they can now
work remotely and securely
from anywhere to make
business happen.
“Accessing and acting on
business and time critical
information, securely, with
SonicWALL firewall and
secure remote access in only
a click away,” adds Sheikh.
“We look forward to forging
a stronger relationship with
Jacky’s, which is one of
the leading visionary retail
groups in the region.”

“We set up a prototype network environment

mirroring Jacky’s live environment in the
company’s Sharjah City Centre premises. After a
few stress tests, it became apparent that there
was a high degree of bandwidth optimisation and
real return on investment (ROI) within Jacky’s
reach.” – Shahnawaz Sheikh, SonicWALL

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com

January 2011 The ValuePlus Quarterly 9

FEATURE | HP SERVER
Storage in 2011:
There will not be huge changes this year because
there has not been a great deal of investment
in technology over the last two to three years.
Kalyan Kommuru, Product Manager: Business
Critical Servers & Enterprise Storage(Middle East),
Redington Value Division explains why.
S
ome of the predictions
below are things I
expected to happen
much sooner when the
economy is better, and with
a slight glimmer of economic
improvement I am hoping
these technologies will finally
make it into the mainstream.
Declustered RAID will
become mainstream
There are currently a
few vendors that support
declustered RAID, but with
the movement to 4TB drives
next year and increasingly
larger and larger storage
environments this will
become a standard across
the industry. Of course, it is
a “buyer beware” situation,
and you can expect an
article from me on this topic
next year.
Large RAID vendors will
support FCoE targets
I hoped this would have come
sooner, but it cannot be too
far from realisation in the
market. FCoE and Ethernet
will dominate the market and
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
10 The ValuePlus Quarterly January 2011
mark and it is likely that two pNFS product releases from
million IOPS will be possible a number of vendors.
next year.
Silent data corruption in file
SAS RAID/JBOD cards will hit systems will be addressed
1,000,000 IOPS in hardware
SAS-based JBOD cards are T10 DIF/PI will finally make
making huge performance it to market. End-to-end
strides and some RAID cards implementation (from host to
now have performance that disk) has been more difficult
it as good as many external than expected. Of course,
RAID devices. The one million some file systems such as
IOPS number is a big jump, ZFS and PAN-FS have this
but I think it will happen in functionality already, but
late 2011. having it in hardware has
Fibre Channel will be relegated some significant advantages.
to legacy environments. pNFS products will finally
be released The dramatic declines in tape
PCIe 3.0 hits the market, but no The pNFS framework has unit sales will significantly slow
16-lane slots or cards finally been released in the The decline in the tape market
PCIe 3.0 doubles performance Linux kernel and vendors is well known, the decline has
over PCIe 2.0 per lane, are starting to create pNFS stopped. The number of PB
and today even mid-range layout drivers for NAS of tape shipped will actually
motherboards have PCIe 2.0 devices and file systems. increase in 2011 and tape unit
16-lane slots. In 2011 we 2011 should be the year of sales could exceed 2010 levels.
will not see performance per
lane double for PCIe
3.0 but we will just
have 8-lane slots on
motherboards and
8-lane cards. Given
that CPU and memory
bandwidth performance
has significantly
increased, the lack of
PCIe bus bandwidth
increase in 2011 will
impact I/O performance,
and what might be hurt
most is PCIe-based SSDs.
SSDs will achieve
2,000,000 IOPS
performance
PCIe-based SSDs
recently hit the
one million IOPS
 HP SERVER | FEATURE

SSD density growth will slow forces will change the storage motherboards. The plan a number of retailers. Prices
Both Jeff Layton and I have horizon relatively quickly, failed miserably for reasons for these products were
written about the expected given the potentially huge that I think are pretty clear. much higher six months
slowdown in SSD density cost savings. Let’s explore why First, SATA drives became ago, and even higher a year
growth, the current highest- I think this change is coming. denser than Fibre Channel ago. So Fibre Channel failed
capacity 2.5-inch SAS SSD drives, their reliability to gain much PC market
is around 500GB. This will FibreOn Never Took Off increased, and their cost share and was relegated to
not grow more than 40% In the early part of this dropped compared to Fibre peripheral storage, and that
over the next year, which decade, there was a Channel drives. storage saw a significant
is significantly down from movement called FibreOn. Today, the cost of 1GbE drop in market potential.
previous years. The idea was to increase the on PC boards is likely less As a result, Fibre Channel
market for Fibre Channel than $10, and definitely less connectivity pricing stayed
2.5-inch drives will surpass 3.5- by putting Fibre Channel than $20. You can buy 1GbE relatively high, which
inch drives in sales in Q4 2011 chipsets on higher-end NICs for less than $10 from further limited the market.
The disk drive market is
changing, and 2.5-inch
drives are the future for
10GbE Pricing in Freefall
IOPS performance, watts per
GB and other reasons. I had
expected 2.5-inch drives to FC 1 port FC 2 Port FC Switch Cost Per Gb/ Cost Per Gb/ Cost Per Port
dominate much sooner, but card 4Gb card 4Gb 16 Port Cost sec 1 port FC sec 2 ports FC 16 Port Switch
the economy caused RAID
$1,028 $1,449 $7,656 $257.10 $181.20 $478
vendors to delay developing
new backend drive trays for
2.5-inch drives.
Same FC pricing today and found that there’s not much difference in price compared to 2007. This was not a
Falling 10GbE Prices Spell Doom huge surprise based on what I see in the market.
for Fibre Channel
I have been tracking the
FC 1 port FC 2 Port FC Switch 16 Cost Per Gb/ Cost Per Gb/ Cost Per Port
prices of 4Gb and 8Gb Fibre
card 8Gb card 8Gb Port Cost sec 1 port FC sec 2 ports FC 16 Port Switch
Channel (FC) and 10Gb
Ethernet (10GbE) for more $1,046 $1,570 $8,175 $139.87 $196.25 $510.94
than a year, and just recently I
have started to see what I have
been expecting: Dramatic
Looking at the same data for 10 GbE shows an astonishing drop in prices over the same period, from
price drops in 10 GbE. December 2007 to today:
The price drops started
with NIC pricing, as that is
the easiest and lowest-cost 10GbE NIC 10GbE NIC Cost 4 Port Cost Per Gb/ Cost Per Gb/ Cost Per Switch
component to develop, store 1 port 2 port Blade/Now 12 sec 1 port GbE sec 2 port GbE Port 4/12(now)
and ship. I believe that this Port Blade port Blade
price drop, combined with
FCoE and other market forces, $2,185 $3,253 $15,829 $219 $163 $3,957
means the slow death of $350 $369 $13,939 $35 $18 $1,162
Fibre Channel has begun. It
will not disappear today, in
2010 or even 2011, but these

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com

January 2011 The ValuePlus Quarterly 11

FEATURE | HP SERVER
Clearly there have been some
significant drops in 10GbE
pricing recently, well above
80 percent. I expect that the
drop is just starting, as I recall
a similar trend when 1GbE hit,
and soon thereafter the cost of
the chipsets dropped to make
them cost-effective enough for
motherboards.
Fibre Channel still has a
more than two-to-one price
advantage in the cost of switch
ports, but I don’t think that
advantage will hold out for
very long, based on past trends
and the usual lag in the drop
of switch pricing compared to
NIC pricing. It takes time to
build switch boards, so they
reflect the cost of chips during
the past. I expect that by mid-
summer, 10GbE switch ports
will be competitive with Fibre
Channel on both a cost per Gb/
sec and a cost per port basis.
What that means is that for
the first time in a very long
time, networking performance
will exceed the performance
of the standard enterprise
storage connection.
The Truth About iSCSI
The protocol it seems most
will look to first because it
is believed to be both cost
effective and easier to use
then the currently more
commonplace fibre channel.
The truth about iSCSI though
is that it is a real storage
protocol and it needs to be
treated like one.
iSCSI encapsulates SCSI
commands into an IP packet
and transmits them across
an Ethernet network. The
encapsulation can be done
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
12 The ValuePlus Quarterly January 2011
by a software agent on the
server operating system (OS)
and most OS’s now have that
capability. The advantage of
the software based version
of iSCSI is it keeps costs
down. The initiator agent in
most cases comes free with
the OS. The encapsulation
process though, when done
in software, does take CPU
resources and may impact
performance if the server is
already CPU constrained. That
is not the case for most servers
today. We don’t see using an
iSCSI software driver on a
server as a big consumer of
CPU resources anymore.
On the storage side, often
called the target, there needs
to be something that either
converts iSCSI to some other
protocol like fibre or SCSI,
but more commonly today the
storage system itself is native
iSCSI. When configuring the
devices the iSCSI agent will
query the iSCSI storage system
for a list of available volumes
and then you can select which
volume should be assigned to
that server.
All of this connectivity
then happens with Ethernet
as the interconnecting
infrastructure. Which today,
especially in the 1GbE form,
can be had for very little
investment. Most businesses
and data centers will be
learning how to interconnect
via an Ethernet infrastructure
long before they need storage
interconnectivity. iSCSI’s
theoretical advantage then
is that when the time comes
for shared storage, the IT
staff already knows the
HP StorageWorks P4000 G2 SAN Solutions
Drive Description (16) LFF SAS
1120 Maximum drives supported
Capacity 7.2 TB Starting
768 TB Maximum
Storage Expansion Options Add incremental P4000 nodes
into the P4000 SAN to expand
capacity or performance -
always done without disruption.
Host Interface 1 GbE iSCSI (10) Ports
Maximum, depending on model
Optional upgrade to 10 GbE iSCSI
(8) Ports
Maximum, depending on model
Supported Operating Systems All major operating systems and
hyper visors are supported. For
more information please visit
www.hp.com/go/
P4000Compatibility
Clustering Support Hyper-redundant clustered
storage
Availability Redundant, hot swap power
supplies; redundant fans;
redundant, hot plug hard drives;
integrated storage controller
with battery-backed DDR2 cache;
disk RAID 5, 6, and 10; hyper-
redundant clustered storage;
Network RAID levels (per volume)
0,5,6,10,10+1, and 10+2 for up to
four copies of your data allows
data to remain available in the
event of a disk, controller, storage
node, power, network, or site failure

infrastructure part and half the
Thin Provisioning Support SAN/iQ Thin Provisioning job is complete. Now they just
need to learn storage.
For sales and Technical Discussion
Snapshot Support SAN/iQ Application Integrated On ISCSI sans : Contact Kalyan @
Snapshots 0509007460
While iSCSI does have its
advantages is also has some
Replication Support SAN/iQ Remote Copy potential unknowns that need
Asynchronous Replication with to either be worked around or
Bandwidth Throttling avoided. The first is that this
Multi-Site/Disaster Recovery is a real storage protocol and
Solution Pack with SAN/iQ needs to be treated like one. That
Synchronous Replication. means it really should be on its
own network either physically or
logically. Otherwise storage traffic
Smart Clone SAN/iQ SmartClone can congest the standard network
and cause performance or
reliability issues. Having storage
Management Centralised Management on its own network makes it
Console, Integrated Lights-Out 2 easier to diagnose problems with
Remote Management either network.
iSCSI may start out simple
but as it scales it can become
challenging. Fine tuning an
IP network for maximum
performance requires experience
and understanding. Care must
be taken when selecting ethernet
cards and switches to make sure
that they can support the full
speed that you are implementing.
Many low end switches for
example, are not designed to
have all or even most of the
ports running full speed at the
same time. They are counting
on bandwidth use being random
between ports and only a few
needing full speed at any point
in time. The problem is though
flooding all available ports with
traffic is entirely possible in a
storage environment.
For example when doing a
backup from servers with iSCSI
attached servers to an iSCSI
attached disk backup. Keeping
these networks separate and
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
January 2011
HP SERVER | FEATURE
making sure the components will
support a fully active data path
are critical.
Performance is another scaling
concern. Most iSCSI storage
environments are still 1GbE
based, even newer ones. 1GbE is
more readily available and costs,
usually a key iSCSI motivator, are
significantly less expensive than
the 10GbE alternative. For some,
especially smaller environments,
1GbE is all the storage I/O they
will ever need most of the time.
For others they will look at using
multiple 1GbE connections
from the servers to increase
performance or they will look at
10GbE.
In the multi-1GbE
configurations make sure that
your iSCSI initiator will support
that configuration and you don’t
see a big performance drop-off
going to the second interface
card. Also see if those cards
can be used in an active-active
fashion not only as a failover. If
you decide to invest in 10GbE
make sure that everything else
in the environment can keep
up with the 10GbE connection.
Many environments have
trouble getting full line speed
performance out of a 10GbE
connection and end up only being
able to use 30 to 40% of available
bandwidth.
iSCSI has its roll to play in
the enterprise and in the SMB,
it can drive down costs but does
have some limitations that can
be worked around or avoided.
Knowing these will help you make
the right protocol selection for
your shared storage environment.
Courtesy: Google pages and HP
web pages
The ValuePlus Quarterly 13

Cisco’s Unified
Computing System
I
n March 2010, Cisco
formally announced its
entry into the enterprise
computing market with a
new product line called the
Cisco Unified Computing
System (UCS). I say formally
announced, because the
existence of the Unified
Computing System might
just be the worst kept secret
in history. In the months
prior, to launch Cisco has
been openly talking about the
system, as well as many news
agencies. The only people who
haven’t been talking about
Unified Computing System enclosure w/
redundant 6120 Fabric Interconnects
the system were those of us
who got briefed in early and
were under strict NDA. But
now, the multiple layers of
NDA have been removed and
I am free to talk. So, let me
tell you about a new concept
called Unified Computing.
The Unified Computing
System answers a simple
question – “what would you
do if you could build a system
with no preconceptions”.
That same question has been
asked over the years by Cisco.
The results have given us the
Catalyst 6500 line of switches,
the Cisco MDS storage
line, as well as the Nexus
7000/5000/2000/1000V family
of switches.
Here are some spec’s to get you
started –
• Single point of management
for all devices in the fabric.
• Virtual machine enabled
networks adapters. (VNtag
capable)
• Up to 320 B-series compute
blades in one fabric.
• Up to 384 Gigabytes of
memory per blade (full width
blade)
• Server Profiles – virtualize
server identities (UUID, WWN,
MAC)
• Hardware Assisted
Virtualization using Intel’s
next generation Xeon
(code named Nehalem-EP)
processors
• Redundant 10 Gigabit
connections between servers.
• Fibre Channel SAN access
available to every blade.
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
January 2011
CISCO | UCS
• Capital costs up to 20% less
• Operational costs up to 30%
less
The UCS does all of
this while using 1/3 less
components then the
competition. What does using
less components give you?
Less components means less
things to buy (lower capital
expense). It also means less
things to power and cool
(lower operational expens).
And finally it means less
items to manage (lower
management burden) How
does Cisco do all of this
while using drastically fewer
components? I think it is
necessary to talk about the
major components that they
system is built from to answer
that question.
Cisco UCS 6100 Fabric
Interconnect (Nexus 5000 on
steroids)
The primary building block
of the system is the Cisco UCS
6100 Fabric Interconnect.
Cisco took the non blocking,
low latency, lossless fabric
from the MDS that was
used on the Nexus 5000
and used it as a building
block for the 6120 and 6140
Fabric Interconnects. These
fabrics support 20 and
40 (6120/6140)10gig Data
The ValuePlus Quarterly 15
UCS | CISCO

Center Ethernet (combined point of management for all

Fibre Channel and Ethernet components in the fabric -
support). • I/O Fabric
• 6120 – 20 Fixed 10 Gig Data • Chassis and Services
Center Ethernet ports along • Adapters and Virtual I/O
with an expansion module This interface can be
that supports native Fibre accessed through either a
Channel, or additional Data web based Gui or CLI. It
Center Ethernet interfaces also supports a full API for
• 6120 – 40 Fixed 10 Gig Data programatic integration
Center Ethernet ports along and management of the
with two expansion module system. The biggest thing
that supports native Fibre that they SAM gives you is
Channel, or additional Data the ability to dynamically
Center Ethernet interfaces provision server attributes
The 6100 series Fabric down to the compute blades.
Interconnect unifies Storage Attributes that can be
and Ethernet network, as pushed down dynamically
well as providing supervisory include CPU UUID, SAN
functions for its remote line PWWN, Ethernet MAC
cards, the 2100 series fabric address, and many more.
extenders that are inserted These items are pushed
the compute chassis. The down through as Service
other thing the 6100 Fabric Profiles.One key component

Interconnect does is house the of the service profile is the

Unified Computing System Port Profile.
Manager (UCSM). These Port Profiles are
dynamically created in the
Cisco Unified Computing System SAM, and most importantly
Manager (UCSM) enable you to create
The UCSM runs on the fabric virtual network interfaces
switches, providing a single (vNics) that show up to

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com

16 The ValuePlus Quarterly January 2011


your server administrators
as normal network
interfaces. This allows your
server administrators to
follow their application
vendors recommended
interconnection topologies.
A great example would
be VMware’s recommended
topology for ESX. In this
topology there are four
network intefaces defined.
Each for a specific function.
This logical topology can be
implemented, with all the
relevant speed, QOS, VLAN,
and security attributes
all “pre-configured”
for the virtulization
administrators, simplifying
their virtualization cluster
deployments.
Cisco UCS 2100 Fabric Extender
(Next Generation FEX)
The next component in
this architecture is the
UCS 2100 Series Fabric
Extender (FEX). There
are two of these in each
bladechassis. Each FEX has
the capability of up-linking
to 6100 Fabric Interconnects
with four 10 Gig ports.
for a total of 80 Gigabit
persecond out of each
blade chassis (supporting 8
half width blades, or 4 full
width blades). Each FEX is
managed as a “remote line
card” connected off of the
Fabric Interconnects.
Logically, think of your
6500 series switch in your
Data Center right now. You
have three logical functions,
supervisory functions (sup
module), a bus for the
switching fabric (traces in
the chassis) and line cards
(6748 for example). You will
notice that you only manage
the sup module itself. You
don’t shell into to each line
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
January 2011
CISCO | UCS
card to set up backplane
interconnects, or to update
microcode. You update
software and configurations
on the sup module, and
the intelligence that Cisco
builds into its software
manages this for you.
The 6100 and the 2100
interact in the exact same
way. In this case the 6100’s
are the sup modules, the
2100’s are the line cards,
and we are running 10 Gig
connections to build the
switching fabric. What this
gives you is a simplified
network architecture,
which takes elements
that would in the past be
individually managed,
maintained, upgraded, etc
and consolidates that into
one highly available, high
bandwidth consolidated SAN
and Ethernet for your Data
Center compute needs.
The ValuePlus Quarterly 17
UCS | CISCO
Putting Network Intelligence
on the Compute Blade
Cisco will be giving
customers three mezzanine
card network adapters
options for the UCS.
The first card (based is
based on a the Palo chipset.
This chipset was developed
internally at Cisco and
performs Network, Storage
and Virtual Machine
networking functions all
on one 10 Gig capable chip.
This chipset effectively
extends network intelligence
into the blade itself allowing
for some pretty interesting
integrations with Virtual
Machine Hypevervisors
(VMware, Hyper-V, Etc).
The second option is
based on the Menlo chipset
in conjunction with either
a Qlogic or Emulex Fibre
Channel adapter chipset that
gives you 10 Gig network
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
18 The ValuePlus Quarterly January 2011
access, while retaining
strict compatability with
applications that require
either of these classic HBA’s.
The third option is an
“economy” option based on
an Intel chipset. This will
give the compute blade 10
Gig access.
What will drive your
choice of network adapter?
I think the biggest driver
will be a technology called
“VNtag”. This technology
is currently in use on the
FEX to encapsulate traffic
that enters the fabric with
a little shim header that
communicates the identity
of the incoming port (VLAN,
QOS, Security info, etc). This
shim header passes from the
FEX up to the 6100 where
the shim header is removed
and the frame is processed.
This alone is very cool,
however Cisco has taken
things one step further and
put the ability to impose
VNtag’s in the Palo chipset
(on the blade) itself. What
this gives you the ability
to logically attach a virtual
machine DIRECTLY to the
network. We no longer
need a vSwitch, or even a
1000V to give full network
functionality to a virtual
machine. Effectively, Cisco is
giving the network adapter
inside of the blade many of
the functions of a network
switchport. Logically what
this does is reduce your
network tiers from four tiers
in a competitive system,
to two tiers in a Unified
Computing System.
Cisco UCS B-Series Blades
The compute blades
themselves are available
in either 1/2 width of full
width form factors. As stated
in the formal announcement
the maximum memory for a
full width blade will be 384
Gigabytes per blade. Why is
this important?
At release, there will be
two option for compute
blades.
Half width blade
•2 quad core Intel Xeon
5500 processors
•96 Gigabytes of memory
•Two small form factor SAS
drives (raid 0 and 1)
•Single Converged Network
Adapter slot (connected to
redundant fabrics)
Full width blade
•2 quad core Intel Xeon
5500 processors
•384 Gigabytes of memory
•Two small form factor SAS
drives (raid 0 and 1)
•Dual Converged Network
Adapter slots
As CPU’s become
more powerful, the host
compression ratio’s (the
amount of virtual machines
you run on one physical
blade) increases. The one
thing is, you can only over
commit your memory to a
point. Once you are at that
point you have to physically
add more memory. Your
only option with legacy
server architectures is to
add another physical server,
pay for additional licenses
and add more memory to
it. Then add that server to
the cluster and allow your
virtual machines to utilize
its additional resources in
the pool.
 REDINGTON | ANNUAL CHANNEL AWARDS

Redington Annual
Channel Awards 2010
- Winners of Value Added Reseller Awards

Software and Security Partner of the Year: Convergence Partner of the Year:
ALPHA DATA PROCESSING LLC (ABU DHABI) MALAZ TECHNOLOGY & COMMUNICATION (KSA)

OGCC and UAE Value Added Partner of the Year: KSA Value Added Partner of the Year:
INTERTECH SYSTEMS LLC WIPRO ARABIA LTD.

Networking Partner of the Year: NAIZAK GLOBAL Server and Storage Partner of the Year:
ENGINEERING SYSTEMS (KSA) NAHIL COMPUTER COMPANY (KSA)

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com

January 2011 The ValuePlus Quarterly 19

REDINGTON VALUE UPDATES

REDINGTON EVENTS:

1. Avaya Africa Partner Meet in Kenya,

Uganda, Tanzania, November 2010

2. The Big Connect Sharm El Sheikh

October 2010, Offsite for HP Networking
partners in KSA

3. Trend Micro Partner Workshop,

UAE, October 2010

3
20 The ValuePlus Quarterly January 2011
For more information or to place an order for HP Networking
please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
JANUARY 2011 FEBRUARY 2011 MARCH 2011 APRIL 2011
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30 31

Date: January 17, 1882 • Inventor: Leroy Firman
With his invention of a “multiple switchboard for telephone
exchanges,”firman addressed the problem of increasing
numbers of subscribers. Previously, single switchboards, each
with an attendant, served their group of individual lines. A large
exchange was thus divided up into a number of internal
exchange switchboards which were worked together as
necessary, with trunk lines between the boards.
Date: February 28, 1956 • Inventor: Jay W. Forrester
Jay Forrester is a pioneer American systems scientist and
invented the first randomaccess magnetic core store
(memory) for an electronic digital computer. He also
supervised the building of the Whirlwind digital computer,
studied the application of computers to management
problems and made numerous contributions to the further
development and application of System Dynamics.
Date: March 17, 1876 • Inventor: Alexander Graham Bell
In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander
Graham Bell both independently designed devices that
could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both
men rushed their respective designs to the patent office
within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented
his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell
entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the
telephone, which Bell won.
Date: April 3, 1973 • Inventor: Joel Engel and Richard Frenkiel
Today’s communications industry would not be what it
is without the contributions made by Richard H. Frenkiel
and Joel S. Engel. The big breakthrough came when AT&T
Labs researchers Frenkiel and Engel divided wireless
communications into a series of cells, then automatically
switched callers as they moved so that each cell could be
reused. This led to the development of cellular phones and
made today’s mobile communications possible.

MAY 2011 JUNE 2011 JULY 2011 AUGUST 2011

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31

Date: May 30, 2006 • Inventor: Tony Fadell
The iPod originated with a business idea dreamed up by Tony
Fadell, an independent inventor. Fadell’s idea was to take an
MP3 player, build a Napster music sale service to complement it,
and build a company around it. Apple hired Fadell in early 2001
and assigned him a team of about 30 people, including
designers, programmers and hardware engineers.
Date: June 28, 1974 • Inventor: Tedd Hoff
As a researcher for the Intel Co, who were developing an integrated
circuit for a Japanese manufacturer of desk-top calculators. With a
knowledge of computers (then still very large machines) he
designed the computer-on-a-chip microprocessor (1968), which
came on the market as the Intel 4004 (1971), starting the
microcomputer industry. In 1980, he was named the first Intel
Fellow, the highest technical position in the company.
Date: July 15, 1985 • Inventor: Paul Brainerd
Paul Brainerd founded the Aldus software company, which
produced the first desktop publishing program, Pagemaker. The
product transformed printing and publishing almost as
dramatically as had moveable type or the rotary press, and it
catapulted Brainerd into the ranks of the youthful millionaires
of the dot- com boom.
Date: August 27, 1878 • Inventor: Christopher Latham Sholes
In 1875, Christopher Sholes rearranged the typewriter keyboard
so that the commonest letters were not so close together and the
type bars would come from opposite directions. Thus they would
not clash together and jam the machine. The new arrangement
was the “QWERTY” arrangement.

SEPTEMBER 2011 OCTOBER 2011 NOVEMBER 2011 DECEMBER 2011

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25 26 27 28 29 30 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 27 28 29 30 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

30 31

Date: September 27, 1998 • Inventor: Sergey Brin, Larry Page
As a research project at Stanford University, Page and Brin
created a search engine that listed results according to the
popularity of the pages. They called the search engine Google
after the mathematical term “Googol,” which is a 1 followed by
100 zeros, to reflect their mission to organize the immense
amount of information available on the Web. After raising $1
million from family, friends and other investors, the pair
launched the company in 1998. Google has since become the
world’s most popular search engine, receiving more than 200
million queries each day.
Date: October 16, 1942 • Inventor: Carlson Chester
Xerography, the technology which started the office copying
revolution, was the invention by a single man working in his
spare time. When he died in 1968 at the age of 62, Chester
Carlson was a wealthy and honored man, Xerox annual revenues
were approaching the billion dollar mark, and the whole world
was making copies at the push of a button.
Date: November 17, 1970 • Inventor: Douglas Engelbart
Years before personal computers and desktop information
processing became commonplace or even practicable, Douglas
Engelbart had invented a number of interactive, user-friendly
information access systems that we take for granted today.
Engelbart has earned nearly two dozen patents, the most
memorable being perhaps for his “X-Y Position Indicator for
a Display System”: the prototype of the computer “mouse”
whose convenience has revolutionized personal computing.
Date: December 26, 1933 • Inventor: Edwin Armstrong
Edwin Armstrong is most commonly known for inventing
frequency-modulated or FM radio in 1933. Frequency
modulation or FM improved the audio signal of radio by
controlling the noise static caused by electrical equipment and
the earth’s atmosphere. Edwin Armstrong received U.S. patent
for a “Method of Receiving High-Frequency Oscillations Radio”
for his FM technology.