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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JULY 21, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 29
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Breaking News -
Storage:
Cisco Systems Selected By
Euronext.liffe For Storage Network
Cisco Systems announced that Market Solutions, the IT division of
Euronext.liffe, is using networking and storage technologies from Cisco and
Hitachi Data Systems, together with project procurement services from BT, to
interconnect data centres in London and Paris for business continuity
purposes.
In this innovative deployment, both the London and Paris data centres host
servers and applications that process live, transactional data with each site
serving as the other's backup data facility in the event of failure. Storage,
data, and optical networking products from Cisco supporting Fibre Channel, IP
storage, TCP/IP, and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) form the underlying
transport infrastructure that extends nearly 650 kilometers from one data
centre to the other. Storage subsystems and data replication software from
Hitachi Data Systems help ensure that identical copies of data are maintained
and can be accessed from either data centre at all times.
"Within a trading environment, having reliable access to realtime data is
not
just important, it's business-critical," said Mark Hemsley, Managing Director
of Euronext.liffe Market Solutions. "We turned to Cisco, Hitachi Data Systems
and BT to deliver this business-continuity solution because the companies have
the experience and the product portfolios that meet the needs of high-end
enterprise computing environments like ours."
Market Solutions data centres host services for all of their portfolio of
customers, each of which has demanding service levels for availability and
data integrity. The storage area network (SAN) is an important infrastructure
component of LIFFE CONNECT, the world's most advanced electronic trading
system. LIFFE CONNECT is used by an expanding global customer base, the SAN
allows the flexibility to consolidate and manage the storage demands of these
customers in a business environment where growth in data storage needs can be
dramatic.
The SAN consists of multiprotocol switches, four at each site, built using
Cisco MDS 9509 Multilayer Directors. These SAN switches connect servers to
several Hitachi Freedom Storage Lightning 9960 and Lightning
9980V enterprise-class storage systems, delivering multiple terabytes of
storage capacity. Hitachi TrueCopy software installed in the storage
subsystems at both data centers helps provide the remote data replication
capability.
Cisco & Hitachi worked together with BT to provide Euronext.liffe Market
Solutions with the most innovative solutions in both technology and project
financing. "The power of the cooperation delivered much more than any of us
could have provided separately," said Pierre Danon, CEO of BT Retail. "This
project reflects the way the market is going; strong teams provide the most
benefit to the customer."
"We often talk of our open and collaborative strategy at Hitachi Data
Systems," said Robert Bignell, Senior Director, Enterprise Products and
Solutions, Hitachi Data Systems. "Working as a cooperative team to provide the
most complete solution possible is what customers want and need, and
Euronext.liffe is proof that this strategy works."
For network connectivity outside of the data centers, Euronext.liffe Market
Solutions equipped its Cisco MDS 9509's with Cisco MDS 9000 IP Storage
Services Modules that connect to Cisco 7600 series routers over TCP/IP. In
turn, these routers connect to a wide-area SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy)
ring built using Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Provisioning Platforms located
at networking points in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. The SDH ring supports
multiple STM-16 links, equivalent to 2.5 gigabits per second of bandwidth per
link.
The IP Storage Services Modules serve as the gateway between LIFFE CONNECT
Fibre Channel-based traffic in its SANs and the TCP/IP-based traffic outside
of its data centres through Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) technology. FCIP
works by encapsulating entire Fibre Channel frames in IP packets for transport
across TCP/IP links. FCIP, therefore, helps enable Euronext.liffe Market
Solutions to connect its SANs over long distances, making it useful for
business continuity applications such as data mirroring, asynchronous data
replication, and remote backup.
Cisco is the first vendor to implement the industry-standard version of
FCIP
technology, which is currently undergoing the ratification process through the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Through the IP Storage Services Module
and the Cisco MDS 9000 Family, Cisco is also the first vendor to offer FCIP
integrated into both director and fabric-class SAN switches.
"Assuring business continuity is becoming a strategic initiative for many
of
our customers," said Robert Lloyd, President of Cisco Systems in Europe Middle
East and Africa. "By working with industry leaders such as Hitachi Data
Systems, Cisco is able to apply its storage and data networking expertise to
deliver highly available and reliable solutions that protect perhaps the most
valuable IT asset an enterprise can own -- its data."
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