The good news is, you don’t have to find a new hobby even if your PC doesn’t have that amount of storage or that specs of GPU. You can still play games on your same PC without risking it getting overheated with cloud gaming.

What is Cloud Gaming?

Before we dive deeper into what cloud gaming is, let’s review a bit about cloud computing in general. The idea of cloud computing is to make computing resources, such as servers, storage, networks, software, and databases available online on a pay-as-you-go basis. With cloud computing, users can access software (SaaS), platforms (PaaS), and infrastructures (IaaS) at any device as long as the device is connected to the internet and the user subscribes to the services.

Simply put, cloud gaming or game as a service is similar to that, except that it is more focused specifically on accessing game services. Thus, gaming as a service allows its users to play video games on a remote server in a data center. This allows users to stream or play video games without having to install each game individually on their PCs or mobile devices as long as they have subscribed to the services and are connected to the internet. The user only needs to either open the website provided or download the app provided by the cloud gaming provider to enjoy the video games because the game is already rendered on the remote server.

What are the Benefits of Cloud Gaming?

There are some of the main benefits of using cloud gaming, which are:

Accessibility

Not everyone has the hardware to run the latest and super demanding video games, but with cloud gaming, users can enjoy high GPU-demanding and storage-demanding games without actually having to upgrade their PC or console. This also saves a lot of money for the users as they can just use their existing hardware without having to buy expensive gaming hardware.

Wider variety of games to play

Also, another benefit of cloud gaming technology is that similar to Netflix or other movie streaming services, users now have a wide range of games to choose from. This is a huge benefit for gamers as they can try out lots of games without going through the hassle of installing or purchasing them one by one.

Flexibility

In the past, we may have experienced playing games that can only run on Windows and can’t be played on Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, etc. Cloud gaming has solved that problem. Similar to how you can always resume that Netflix series that you haven’t finished watching on any of your devices, cloud gaming also allows users to cross-play across their desktop and mobile devices, which can’t be accomplished using traditional computer or hardware-based games.

Easier Developer Experience

With cloud gaming, game developers now only have to build a video game once and it can directly be distributed across multiple devices without having to create multiple binaries. This means they no longer have to go through the hassle of optimizing the video games for multiple hardware platforms (mobile and desktop).

How Does Cloud Gaming Work?

Just like a movie or video streaming service, cloud gaming usually requires its users to pay on a monthly or yearly basis to access the games, and some require their users to buy the games on top of that fee.

The remote server will do all the heavy work. The server renders the game and streams the video game to your device.  Meanwhile, your device (PC, tablet, phone) will receive the streaming video and audio and your device will also send input commands. Your keyboard and mouse input actions will be sent over the network to the server. In short, the inputs from your device will be sent to the game server, and the server sends back a response, in the form of a video stream, in real time.

Future Trends in Cloud Gaming

In the future, cloud gaming can be as famous and as widely adopted as video streaming services like Netflix or Disney+, as the trend in subscription-based services is on the rise. People prefer subscription over ownership because it is more affordable and flexible without the required maintenance. Furthermore, the global e-commerce subscription market size is expected to reach $904.28 billion in 2026. Additionally, Newzoo, a provider of games and e-sports analytics, also predicts that cloud gaming will generate $6.3 million in revenue by 2024.

The global adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on the rise. According to a 2021 survey by McKinsey , AI adoption is continuing its steady rise as 56% of the respondents adopt AI in at least one function of their organization, compared to 50% in their 2020 survey.  With the rise of global AI adoption, the future of cloud gaming providers will also be likely to utilize AI to provide a better gaming experience for their users. Aside from better graphics, Myelin Foundry , a deep tech product start-up, mentions that AI and deep learning can help users to have a lag-free and ultra-HD cloud gaming experience.

Ultimately, the future of cloud gaming is set for immense growth in-the-near future. With more and more gamers signing on and using this service, it appears that this has the potential to become the norm.

The post Is Cloud Gaming Becoming the New Norm? appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

IAM Key Components

IAM involves several key components, including authentication, authorization, and user provisioning and de-provisioning. Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user or device that is requesting access to a cloud resource. This can be achieved through various methods, such as passwords, security tokens, and biometric factors like fingerprints or facial recognition. By verifying the user’s identity, organizations can ensure that only authorized users have access to their cloud resources.

Authorization is the process of granting or denying access to a specific cloud resource based on the user’s identity and access privileges. Access privileges are typically assigned based on the user’s role or job function within the organization. For example, a user with administrative privileges would have access to more sensitive data and systems than a user with a basic user role.

Added Layer of Security

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is becoming increasingly popular as an added layer of security for the authentication process. MFA requires users to provide more than one form of authentication, such as a password and a security token, to verify their identity. This helps to prevent unauthorized access by ensuring that a potential attacker would need to possess more than just one factor of authentication to gain access to cloud resources.

Role-based access control (RBAC) is a model for managing access to cloud resources based on the user’s role or job function within the organization. RBAC allows organizations to manage access to resources more efficiently and securely by limiting access to only those users who require it to perform their job duties. This reduces the risk of data breaches and other security incidents that may occur due to unauthorized access.

User provisioning and de-provisioning are crucial components of IAM that ensure that users are provided with the necessary access privileges when they join an organization, and those privileges are removed when they leave the organization. This helps to prevent former employees from retaining access to sensitive data and systems after they have left the organization.

Conclusion

Ultimately, IAM is a critical aspect of cloud security that allows organizations to manage the digital identities of their users and control their access to cloud resources. By implementing IAM frameworks, organizations can reduce the risk of data breaches and other security incidents that may occur due to unauthorized access to cloud resources. IAM provides organizations with greater control over their cloud resources, ensuring that only authorized users have access to sensitive data and systems. As more and more organizations move their operations to the cloud, IAM will become increasingly important in ensuring the security of cloud-based data and systems.

Let’s start the conversation today! Click here to discuss how Wowrack can enhance your organizations security.

The post A Brief Overview of Identity & Access Management (IAM) appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

Step 1: Identify what needs to be backed up

The first step in creating a backup is to identify what data needs to be backed up. This includes important documents, photos, videos, and any other valuable data that you cannot afford to lose. It is also essential to identify the devices where this data is stored, such as laptops, desktops, smartphones, and external hard drives.

Step 2: Choose a backup location

Once you have identified the data that needs to be backed up, the next step is to choose a location. There are several options available for storage, which can range from external hard drives to network-attached storage (NAS). It is essential to choose a location that suits your needs.

Step 3: Choose a backup method

There are several methods available, such as full, incremental, and differential backup. A full backup involves copying all the data to the backup location. the Incremental method only backs up the data that has changed since the last backup, while the differential method backs up all the data that has changed since the last full backup. It is important to choose a method that suits your needs and ensures the safety and accessibility of your data.

Step 4: Set up automatic backups

Manually creating backups can be time-consuming and may also be forgotten. It is essential to set up automatic backups to ensure that your data is backed up regularly without any manual intervention. Most operating systems have built-in backup tools that allow you to schedule backups at regular intervals.

Step 5: Verify the backup

Once the backup is complete, it is important to verify that it is working correctly. This can be done by accessing the new storage location and ensuring that all the data has been successfully backed up. It is also essential to ensure that the location is secure and protected from unauthorized access.

Step 6: Regularly update the backup

Data is constantly changing, and it is important to regularly update the backup to ensure that all the latest data is backed up. This can be done by scheduling regular backups at regular intervals, such as daily, weekly, or monthly.

Ultimately, creating backups is an essential part of ensuring the safety and accessibility of your data. By following these steps, you can create backups that suit your needs and ensure the safety and accessibility of your data. Remember to regularly update the backups and verify that the backups are working correctly to ensure that your data is always protected.

If you are interested in learning more about backups and how to incorporate them into your organization, click here to send us a message. We would love to continue the conversation and discuss how Wowrack can help your company thrive.

The post How to Easily Backup your Data with these 6 Steps appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

What is a public cloud and its Advantage?

A public cloud is a multi-tenant infrastructure that is shared among many organizations. It is owned and operated by a cloud service provider and resources such as computing power, storage, and network connectivity are made available over the internet. One of the main advantages of a public cloud is that it is highly scalable, with the ability to quickly add or remove resources as needed. This makes it ideal for businesses that experience sudden spikes in demand, as they can quickly scale their infrastructure to meet their requirements.

Another advantage of public clouds is that they are cost-effective. Since many organizations are sharing the same infrastructure, the cost of maintaining and managing it is spread out among the users. This results in lower costs for the individual users, compared to the cost of building and maintaining their own private cloud.

What is a private cloud and its Advantage?

A private cloud is dedicated to a single organization, with resources such as computing power, storage, and network connectivity made available only to that organization. This results in higher levels of security, privacy, and control for the organization. A private cloud provides the organization with complete control over the infrastructure and the ability to customize it to meet their specific requirements. This makes it ideal for businesses that require a high level of control and privacy, such as financial institutions or healthcare organizations.

Another advantage of a private cloud is that it provides better performance. In a private cloud, resources are dedicated to the organization, which creates a no risk environment of resource or capacity contention. This can be especially important for businesses that require high levels of performance and scalability.

In terms of compliance, a private cloud can also be a better option for organizations that need to comply with specific regulations. Afterall it provides them with the ability to control and secure their data and infrastructure in a way that may not be possible with a public cloud.

In the end

Ultimately, the decision between a private or public cloud ultimately depends on the specific needs and requirements of the organization. Public clouds are ideal for businesses that require scalability and cost-effectiveness, while private clouds are ideal for businesses that require high levels of security, privacy, control, performance, and compliance. If you are unsure about which option is best for your organization, it is best to consult with a cloud computing expert for a personalized assessment.

You can contact us today to discuss which option would work best for you and your organization.

The post Public Cloud vs Private Cloud which is Better? appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

There are three other types of cloud computing service available other than IaaS which is service-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and serverless.

There are many advantages in considering using or migrating workload into IaaS. For example, users of IaaS can use any kind of operating system or application disregarding the maintenance and operational cost.

IaaS service also provides access to servers throughout the world and a service-level agreement (SLA) regarding the uptime and performance of the service. This allows businesses to eliminate the need to manage and provision their data center manually.

How to Implement IaaS in Business

IaaS represents the general purpose of computing resources, thus it is capable of supporting all use cases of all types. The question of “how to implement IaaS” then becomes insignificant. However, there are 5 ways of implementing IaaS that are commonly used by businesses.

• Lift-and-Shift Migration

Lift-and-Shift Migration is the fastest and least expensive migration business can take when migrating into IaaS service. It allows businesses to scale the size, enhance the performance, and reduce the cost without many works.

• Test and Development

IaaS is also useful a field of test and development. Users can quickly set up and scale environments suitable for the need of the test, thus bringing results faster and better.

• Storage, Backup, and Recovery

In-house IT infrastructure often requires a huge amount of investment and cost to maintain. Employing an IaaS service will help businesses in handling the growing need for space for storage and simplify the process of backup and recovery data.

• Web Apps

IaaS can also be used to support web apps needs, from the networking resources, storage, and the web and application itself. The ease of scaling the IaaS service also means users can simply scale the service according to demand.

• High-Performance Computing

Completing the calculation of complex variables or analyzing large data can also be achieved using IaaS. IaaS flexibility allows focusing computing capability into one single demanding task or workload.

Wowrack’s IaaS Service

Wowrack is a global leader in various IaaS services. Our service include Disaster Recovery, Private & Hybrid Cloud solutions, Colocation, Backup Services, Managed AWS & Azure, SD-WAN services and more.  All of these can optionally be co-managed or fully managed by Wowrack 24/7/365 team of experts.  With a workforce that is 80% engineering, you can rest assured that no matter what challenges you face. Wowrack is by your side to help.

Get in contact today to schedule your no-obligation consultation!

The post How to Implement IaaS into Your Business? appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

This migration will allow the business to provide broader access for their customer or their own employee to a certain degree. 

Here, we have compiled a discussion on the general look of “what is a cloud”, the planning and strategies that you could use, and the common challenge that you might face when performing cloud migration. 

General Look of “What is Cloud” 

To understand why you might need to perform cloud migration in the current business environment, you first need to know about the cloud. 

Cloud computing – often being shortened into “cloud” – refers to the pool of computer services that you can access through the connection of the internet. 

The advantage of this pool of computers is its ability to be accessed instantly without the need for the user to set it up themselves. Cloud also allows businesses to move away from on-premise storage. 

Instead, the cloud provider will have dedicated massive data centers around the world to fill all of their clients’ needs. These data centers allow the cloud provider to better maintain and secure the infrastructure. 

Why Move to Cloud? 

You then might ask, why should you perform cloud migration or why even use the cloud at all? So, let us make it clear the two biggest advantages of using the cloud today. 

1. No More On-Premise Server – This means no more dedicated IT specialists. You can focus more on what is your business need, rather than performing maintenance of your IT infrastructure. 

2. Virtually Limitless Computer Resources – You can have as many computer resources as you need. High workloads, add more resources. Not much going on, reduce the resources. That simple. 

If you are still unsure about the feasibility of using the cloud for your business, here are some reports and surveys regarding what the future is like. 

According to Flexera, by the end of 2020, 60% of small and medium businesses moved their workload to clouds and will continue to use the cloud for the foreseeable future. 

Another survey conducted by Venture Beat conclude that 50% of the Fortune 500 companies have undergone a digital transformation in the Q3 of 2021. 

These two surveys should have shown that modern business is putting great attention to the use of the cloud and slowly moving away from an on-premise server to cloud setups. 

Planning What You are Moving 

So, let’s say that you are willing to move your business model from on-premise to cloud, what should you do first in this case. The first thing you need to do is to plan what you are moving into the cloud. 

The fundamental planning when you want to perform cloud migration are the following: 

3. Why you are moving it, 

4. What you are moving, and 

5. How you are going to do it. 

First, evaluate “why” you want to move into the cloud. The business environment often became the biggest reason perform the migration. 

Try to set aggressive goals to drive the migration forward. This includes creating a baseline of your IT performance and cloud migration key performance indicators (KPI). 

Second, find out what you want to move into the cloud. Preferably, workloads or applications that can be moved as they are will be the first ones to be migrated. Meanwhile, with the one that needs a lot of reworking as the last one to be migrated. 

Third, choose how you are going to do perform the migration. The use of tools to simplify migrations and choosing the correct cloud deployment model will be your focus on the last step of planning. We will discuss this more in-depth in the strategies section down below. 

Strategies You Can Use to Perform Cloud Migration 

There are three most common strategies that you can use when performing cloud migration from on-premise storage. Below are the strategies in the order of the quickest and easiest set up to the most difficult one. 

1.    Rehosting (Lift and Shift) 

Rehosting is the quickest and easiest choice you can choose when performing a cloud migration. This strategy is recommended to be used for simple and low-impact workloads. 

As the name implies, this strategy is only moving your data to the cloud. Thus, you might not receive the full benefit when compared to fully going cloud-native. 

2.    Replatforming (Move and Improve) 

The replatforming strategy is used if you are looking to have some of the benefits of what a cloud environment can provide to you. Usually, it involves modernization or updates to the workload or application that will be moved to the cloud. 

This strategy is often preferred when compared to rehosting due to the benefit that businesses could receive from the cloud infrastructure. 

3.    Refactoring (Rip and Replace) 

Refactoring or re-architecting strategy is only preferable for those who wish to fully embrace the cloud. This strategy will force businesses to perform total redesign of workloads or applications to receive the full potential of the cloud infrastructure. 

Common Challenges When Performing Cloud Migration 

There is nothing in the world that can work smoothly without a problem and the same can be said with performing cloud migration. 

Here are some common challenges that you might want to know before performing a cloud migration. 

• Complexity – Different types of cloud require different types of maintenance and can fulfill different types of needs. Understanding your need for the cloud will be the utmost important thing. 
• Dependencies – Workload and application dependencies might bring cloud migration to a grinding halt. 
• Legacy Application – There are times when workload or applications are too complicated and costly to be migrated into the cloud. This is why proper planning is necessary. 
• Databases – While not that big of a challenge, a large amount of data requires time to complete the migration into the cloud. 
• Managing Cost – Proper management of cloud resources can deliver cost-saving. Thus, business needs to consider all of the required cost before and after moving to the cloud. 

Wowrack is Here to Help

Moving to a new environment can be a daunting task for business, especially when we are talking about IT needs. This is why proper survey and analysis are better conducted before making any decision. 

If you are not sure what is the best compute environment for your application, you can always consult us by clicking the link down bellow. We will help you find the best-fit solutions for your needs.

The post What is Cloud Migration and the Benefit to Your Business? appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

Back in 2001, when Wowrack began its journey for the first time in global hosting markets, we put in mind that we were doing more than delivering a service. We were also delivering a quality, a need that our customers require.

Almost two decades after, precisely in 2020, Wowrack ranked 7th and 8th as the best private and hybrid cloud providers respectively according to HostReview. The 15th Annual Web Hosting Awards put Wowrack as one of world’s top ten cloud providers alongside big players in the market.

The assessment, accordingly, covers the overall quality of services a hosting company delivers to the clients. In other words, this includes technology, security, support teams, and so forth. Also, the reviewer evaluates how a company perceives emerging trends and solves complex challenges businesses face worldwide.

But what does this have to do with Wowrack—and, especially, with you?

Wowrack Delivers a Service Quality to Global Customers

Upon delivering services, our team follows strict protocols and such standards as SOC2 Type II/SSAE 18. This is to ensure that everything will go according to plan and nothing goes wrong in the process. Long story short, it is part of our commitment to always deliver the best quality our customers can get.

We completely understand that our customers’ businesses are critical. They, indifferent from us, have customers that they have to accommodate 24/7. There are needs that they have to cater and that is why failure is not an option.

That being said, how can they smoothly facilitate their customers without having a reliable infrastructure that runs without a problem?

This becomes a critical mission that Wowrack has: to provide the best IT infrastructure solutions for our customers. The infrastructure that we provide varies. Depending of what customers need, Wowrack has private, public, and hybrid cloud, as well as colocation.

However, to know what you actually need better, we suggest you to consult to the expert. After all, we can agree that self-diagnosis can oftentimes lead to a more problematic outcome.

However, after getting into one of the prestigious awards in the world, here comes the following question. What’s next?

Wowrack will always commit to deliver the best services that our customers actually need. In so doing, we will continuously improve our services better, whether in terms of technology or support.

The post Wowrack Belongs to Top 10 Global Private and Hybrid Cloud Providers 2020 appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, daily IT usage has increased significantly across the globe, including in the US. With greater IT usage comes greater IT needs, specifically for businesses.

Nowadays, IT is no longer exclusive for specific types and sizes of businesses as every single business needs IT to maintain their continuity. According to a survey published on Small Business Trends, 92% of US small businesses has migrated to IT-driven business models to maintain continuity and productivity.

Additionally, businesses need IT tools to support remote working or enable their customers access their services digitally. In other words, this means that almost all businesses—perhaps yours too—are adapting to a new way of doing stuffs. Adaptation might seem complicated and difficult but, still, business must go on.

That’s where Wowrack can help you.

What Wowrack Does

We at Wowrack understand that any business wants to remain productive during this kind of circumstance as we have also witnessed this occurrence by ourselves. Many of our existing and new clients have told us that they also need more IT services to boost their productivity.

Some of the services that our existing and new clients need to help their businesses running these days are:

• Managed Private Cloud Service
  Private cloud is a single tenant, client-specific cloud computing customized specially to your actual needs. This service is getting more critical as every business needs a more secure and flexible IT infrastructure to meet their diverse needs.
  
  
• Disaster Recovery and Backup Services
  Disaster recovery and backup services is not only critical but also integral to business continuity plan and management. What Wowrack does to accommodate this is that we can flexibly adjust the service delivery to your budgetary and system needs without risking the quality and security.
  
  
• Hybrid Cloud Management
  Since IT needs are getting diverse, we understand that one type of clouds does not fit all needs. That is why we can manage your different cloud infrastructure or on-premises, you name it.
  
  
• And many more to mention.
  
  

How Wowrack Can Help You

During these surreal times, we completely understand that everyone is desperately trying to survive. That’s why we won’t exploit you. What we want is a relationship that mutually benefits you and us. Accordingly, here’s how we can help you.

• Accommodating Your Actual Needs
  We will deliver what you actually need instead of what you think you need. This has been part of our client-centric commitment since we started our journey two decades ago.
  
  
• Working Professionally alongside You
  We commit ourselves to become a true cloud partner, so we will do our best to do so. We are 24/7 ready to assist you with what you need. Of course, by 24/7, we really mean it.
  
  
• Delivering the Best Services and Products Possible
  It’s true that we can adjust our services to your budget, but we won’t give you a second-rate service. Once we’re in agreement, we will deliver our best team, services, and products for you.
  
  
• Managing Your IT Needs
  In this difficult time, we understand that it’s taxing for you to think of your core business and manage your IT at the same time. Rest assured as we can manage your IT needs so you can focus on maintaining your business.
  
  

How You Can Help Us

Actually, we also need your help to understand you better. To do so, you can consult with our team. We will listen to your needs so that we can execute and deliver what you need better.

The post What Wowrack Does—And How We Can Help You appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

NTFS is the primary file system for recent versions of Windows and Windows Server, that provides a full set of features including security descriptors, encryption, disk quotas, and rich metadata, and can be used with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) to provide continuously available volumes that can be accessed simultaneously from multiple nodes of a failover cluster.

So, what is ReFS?

Resilient File System (ReFS) is Microsoft’s newest file system, that designed to maximize data availability, scale efficiently to large data sets across diverse workloads, and provide data integrity by means of resiliency to corruption. The ReFS used to detect all types of disk corruption, data striping and also copy-on-write features. ReFS is a newest system of Windows based on NTFS, and in other words, this is an update system to complete the Windows NTFS system.

Basically, the ReFS system is better than the NTFS system. Because the NTFS system has several limitations that have been improved by the system. ReFS supports features that already exist in NTFS such as BitLocker encryption, access control lists for security, USN journaling, change notifications, symbolic links, junction points, mount points, reparse points, volume snapshots, file IDs, and OpLocks.

How does it work?

ReFS uses checksums for metadata and optionally for data files and has the ability to detect damage reliably. Additionally it can automatically repair detected damage using alternative data copies provided by Storage Spaces. ReFS can delete corrupt data when the volume is damaged and a copy of the data is damaged and it can handle most irreparable damage. ReFS introduces a data integrity scanner, known as a scrubber, which can periodically scans volumes, identifies damage and proactively triggers corrupt data repair. However, this system cannot be used for booting PCs or used in external media such as USB flash disks or memory cards.

Some of the advantages of ReFS compared to NTFS include the field of hyper-V and backup applications.

On Hyper-V, ReFS has some advantages:

1. The “Block Cloning” feature can accelerate copy operations, enabling quick, low-impact VM checkpoint merge operations, which in turn reduces the disk I/O load
2. The “Sparse VDL” feature can zero files rapidly, reducing the time needed to create fixed VHDs from 10s of minutes to mere seconds.

However, it’s not suitable for SAN-based cluster shared storage, at least for now, because the Hyper-V cluster will always put the ReFS CSV on “File System Redirected” mode, which caused the owner node to be the only one accessing the SAN, while the other nodes are accessing the storage over the cluster network (I’ve seen no SAN traffic flowing on the other nodes, only on the owner node). See below for more details:

This is on a ReFS CSV:

BlockRedirectedIOReason: NotBlockRedirected

FileSystemRedirectedIOReason: FileSystemReFs

Name: HVC-Prod-Disk3

Node: WOWHVC3

StateInfo: FileSystemRedirected

VolumeFriendlyName: HVC-Prod-Disk3

VolumeName: \\?\Volume{ee02dcb9-8066-458f-8fb4-cc974f8be89a}\

And this is on a NTFS CSV:

BlockRedirectedIOReason: NotBlockRedirected

FileSystemRedirectedIOReason : NotFileSystemRedirected

Name: HVC-Prod-Disk1

Node: WOWHVC3

StateInfo: Direct

VolumeFriendlyName: HVC-Prod-Disk1

VolumeName: \\?\Volume{7973af21-ee14-4d9e-aada-314e8b8d8850}\

With NTFS, all nodes are accessing the SAN storage using DirectIO, which should give us better performance.

But ReFS is okay for Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) configuration, since there is no shared storage anyway (every nodes have direct-attached disks) so all access is essentially redirected.

For Backup Applications, the advantages are as follows:

System Center DPM 2016 is actually using the resilient file system by default for the backup storage, as it utilizes the “block-cloning” technology on ReFS to accelerate the backup process. It’s a part of the “Modern Backup Storage” technology that SCDPM 2016 offers.

DPM 2016 uses block cloning to store backups on ReFS volumes. Instead of using copy-on-write to store backups (which was used by VolSnap in DPM 2012 R2), DPM 2016’s block cloning uses allocate-on-write. This change improves IOPS efficiency, making backups nearly 70% faster.

Veeam also recommends ReFS for the backup storage, as it also utilizes the same “block cloning” technology on ReFS (Veeam calls it “fast cloning capability”) to speed up the backup process.

Version 9.5 leverages the fast cloning capability in ReFS API to create synthetic backups without moving the data blocks between files, and instead, references backup file blocks already present on the volume. This means all manipulations associated with synthetic full backups are limited to metadata updates and require no actual I/O operations on backed up data.

Another advantage of using ReFS for backup storage is: it enables us to scale-up the backup storage capacity up to 35 PB (compared to a maximum of 256TB on NTFS)

So, to conclude this story:

1. On Hyper-V Cluster, use NTFS on SAN-based storage, and use ReFS on Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) storage
2. On a Standalone Hyper-V server, use ReFS so that we can take advantage of the “Block Cloning” and “Sparse VDL” feature, which can accelerate VM checkpoint merge operations and fixed VHD creation. However, please be advised that a ReFS partition can be expanded, but cannot be shrunk, so if you know that you will need to shrink the partition in the future, please use NTFS.
3. On Backup servers using SCDPM 2016 or Veeam B&R 9.5, use ReFS on the Backup Disk/Storage to accelerate the backup process

Curious what Wowrack can do for you? Contact us today to learn more!

The post Microsoft’s ReFS vs NTFS system Which is Better? appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

Has Your Business Adopted the Right Cloud Environment?

The cornerstone of well-oiled cloud integration is whether you have chosen the correct infrastructure to handle the right workload. There isn’t one right answer to this, as a variety of factors can play into what cloud environment best suits your businesses’ current/future goals and needs. The different cloud types include the following (and can certainly be combined within one overall infrastructure to accommodate segmented needs):

• Private Cloud
• Hybrid Cloud
• Public Cloud

On top of this, facilitating the correct management of your infrastructure is just as, if not more, important to continued success while utilizing the cloud. Many companies find success by hiring a managed cloud provider, such as Wowrack, to ensure optimal performance, monitor security concerns, and provide strategic insight.

Preparing for Future Growth with Scalability

As any business should, you most likely have a 5-year plan, a 10-year plan, and so on. If you’re confident in your business structure and trajectory, you are most likely planning for your business volume & revenue to grow. With those predictions, you can’t forget about scalability capabilities within your cloud infrastructure to support those endeavors.  This is where infrastructure-as-a-service comes into play, particularly within the private cloud sector. Many managed provider companies like Wowrack offer pay-as-you-go pricing that allows for seamless growth, without having to pay for any capabilities that aren’t currently utilized. Companies like this also oftentimes offer colocation facilities that provide the equipment necessary for increasing capacity on demand.

Protecting Your Assets with Compliance & Security Assurance

A mission-critical aspect of utilizing cloud infrastructure as the core of your business structure is to ensure your compliance and security requirements are fully monitored and up-to-date. This is, unfortunately, where many businesses encounter issues that can end up costing time, money and resources.

As more companies are utilizing the cloud for different functionalities, regulatory requirements are becoming more complex, and security concerns are becoming more unrelenting, Undoubtedly, the best way to combat this is to arm yourself with a competent team of cloud service experts who can fully integrate all necessary protocols to ensure specific and continuous compliance and managed security monitoring.

Not only should you consider whether your cloud portfolio meets your requirements now, but similar to scalability, it is a concern that must be planned for the future as well.  Similarly, you can work with your cloud service provider to utilize existing security/compliance resources and protocols on top of their specialized services, so you can expend your resources appropriately.

Benefits of Private Cloud – Supporting Your Ever-Changing Infrastructure

Two of the most up-and-coming cloud environments utilized by corporate entities is the private cloud and hybrid cloud models in 2019. This is due to their consideration for security flexibility, scalable adaptability, and overall better performance (as the infrastructure is solely dedicated to one organization).

To discuss whether a private cloud infrastructure is right for your company, contact a Wowrack representative today. We offer a free cloud cost analysis to discuss your current and future business needs to determine the right cloud portfolio for you.

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