Spotlight - SQL
LiteSpeed Return
on Investment
Introduction
When evaluating a product in the IT industry some of the most impressive product figures from a managerial perspective are related to the return on investment (ROI). Too often the perception from management is that an affinity for a product is related to being the latest and greatest technology versus delivering cost savings and value to the organization. This article addresses tangible cost savings via the following items:
♦ Scenario 1 - 10 SQL Server environment with locally attached tape drives ♦ Scenario 2 – 5 SQL Server environment with centralized backups
♦ Additional ROI Calculations
Note - For further cost savings information, contact Edgewood Solutions at 888.788.2444 for a customized assessment of the SQL LiteSpeed savings based on the unique characteristics of your organization.
Scenario 1 – Decentralized SQL Server Backups
For organizations with tape drives attached to individual SQL Servers, below outlines the cost savings of an organization with 10 dual processor SQL Servers. With a total three year investment of
$10,320.00 in SQL LiteSpeed a company would save $34,910.00 over that three year period.
10 22 50 GB 10 GB
LiteSpeed Cost Per Server $645
LiteSpeed Maintenance Cost 20%
GB Speed Cost Backup Drives Required Backup Drives Required with LiteSpeed Backup Drives Total Cost Backup Drives Total Cost with LiteSpeed Drive Cost Savings Per Server with LiteSpeed Total Drive Cost Savings with LiteSpeed 36 15K $629.00 2 1 $1,258.00 $629.00 $629.00 $6,290.00 Tape GB Type Cost Backup Tapes Required Backup Tapes Required with LiteSpeed Backup Tapes Total Cost Backup Tapes Total Cost with LiteSpeed Tape Cost Savings Per Server Per Year with LiteSpeed Annual Tape Savings with LiteSpeed 40 DLT $59.00 2 1 $118.00 $59.00 $1,298.00 $12,980.00 $6,290.00 $12,980.00 $12,980.00 $12,980.00 $45,230.00 $7,740.00 $1,290.00 $1,290.00 $10,320.00 $34,910.00 Servers Tape Rotations Traditional Backup Size LiteSpeed Backup Size
per server yearly
1st year savings of disk space 1st year savings with 40GB DLT tapes
Disk
3rd year LiteSpeed cost
Total LiteSpeed Cost Total 3 year savings TAPE DRIVE PER SERVER SCENARIO
2nd year savings with 40GB DLT tapes 3rd year savings with 40GB DLT tapes 1st year LiteSpeed cost
2nd year LiteSpeed cost
Total Tape and Disk Savings
Scenario 2 – Centralized SQL Server Backups
For organizations with centralized SQL Servers backups, below outlines the cost savings of an organization with 5 quad-processor SQL Servers. With a total three year investment of $8,760.00 in SQL LiteSpeed a company would save $24,559.00 over that three year period.
5 22 yearly 500 GB 100 GB
LiteSpeed Cost Per Server $1,095
LiteSpeed Maintenance Cost 20%
GB Speed Cost Backup Drives Required Backup Drives Required with LiteSpeed Backup Drives Total Cost Backup Drives Total Cost with LiteSpeed Drive Cost Savings Per Server with LiteSpeed Total Drive Cost Savings with LiteSpeed 36 15K $629.00 14 3 $8,806.00 $1,887.00 $6,919.00 $6,919.00 Tape GB Type Cost Backup Tapes Required Backup Tapes Required with LiteSpeed Backup Tapes Total Cost Backup Tapes Total Cost with LiteSpeed Tape Cost Savings Per Year with LiteSpeed Annual Tape Savings with LiteSpeed 110 SDLT $100.00 5 1 $500.00 $100.00 $8,800.00 $8,800.00 $6,919.00 $8,800.00 $8,800.00 $8,800.00 $33,319.00 $6,570.00 $1,095.00 $1,095.00 $8,760.00 $24,559.00 Notes: This does not factor in savings for offsite storage costs
This does not factor in savings for onsite storage space Disk
CENTRALIZED TAPE MANAGEMENT Servers Tape Rotations Traditional Backup Size LiteSpeed Backup Size
4-CPU Servers
Total Tape and Disk Savings 1st year savings of disk space
1st year savings with 110GB DLT tapes 2nd year savings with 110GB DLT tapes 3rd year savings with 110GB DLT tapes
Total LiteSpeed Cost Total 3 year savings 1st year LiteSpeed cost
2nd year LiteSpeed cost 3rd year LiteSpeed cost
Additional ROI Calculations
When comparing SQL LiteSpeed to existing backup solutions, it is feasible to efficiently and accurately determine the cost savings based on the volume of servers, database size and tape costs. The two previous charts accurately outline these savings. In conjunction with these predictable calculations, it is necessary to aggregate the costs of the following items that differ among companies in order to
determine a comprehensive ROI. Additional ROI factors include:
♦ Offsite tape storage –SQL LiteSpeed reduces the number of tapes needed for daily backup processes and therefore reduces the costs for offsite tape storage.
♦ Onsite storage space –SQL LiteSpeed reduces the number of tapes needed for a daily backup and therefore reduces the number of tapes needed on-site.
♦ Tape handling – By reducing the large volume of tapes for daily backups, the reduction of mistakes caused by mislabeling, filing, etc will be improved.
♦ Network bandwidth – Since there is always a need to copy database backups to other servers for testing restores, refreshing test environments, etc., the reduced size of the backup file will reduce the network bandwidth required to complete the operations. ♦ Faster backups – SQL LiteSpeed maximizes critical time for other Database processes,
index rebuilds, data loads, etc. by rapidly completing backups.
♦ Tunable backup – SQL LiteSpeed permits configurable backup and restorations depending on the system resources being utilized to tune the backup with appropriate settings. This ability allows the backup to execute optimally with capabilities not available with any other product.
♦ Faster restores – In the event of a critical disaster when working through the recovery process every minute counts. By using SQL LiteSpeed your restore process is faster then the native process and much faster then a tape restore.
♦ Backups on disk for faster Disaster Recovery – By having SQL Server backups readily available on disk, it is not necessary to worry about handling tapes when performing a restoration. The smaller backup size allows you to keep multiple copies of the backup on disk in case it is necessary to revert to a previous restore.
♦ Allows extra time to run Verify option – With the increased time savings for your backup you now have time to verify your backup was a good backup. In most cases the verify takes as long as the backup. Now that the backup time has been cut in half you can use that time savings to run the verify process to validate the integrity to the backup.
♦ DBAs are control of database backups - Ability to execute the backups via T-SQL Jobs in SQL Server Agent or as needed in Query Analyzer rather than an unfamiliar tool that is external to SQL Server.
♦ Reduce staff wait time – Due to faster backups, network copies and restores, DBAs spend less time waiting for processes to finish. As such this provides DBAs with more time for additional tasks.
Conclusion
The savings defined in the above two scenarios is significant based on recurring disk and tape costs. As additional ROI calculations are factored into the equation the overall value derived by SQL
LiteSpeed becomes much greater to organizations.
For further cost savings information, contact Edgewood Solutions at 888.788.2444 for a customized assessment of the SQL LiteSpeed savings based on the unique characteristics of your organization.
About the Author - Greg Robidoux
Greg Robidoux is the founder of Edgewood Solutions a database solutions company in the United States and is currently the Vice Chair of the PASS DBA Special Interest Group. He has 14 years of IT experience and has been working with databases for the last 10 years with the past four years of that with SQL Server. Greg’s primary areas of focus are setting standards, disaster recovery, security and change management controls. In addition to these areas he has experience with replication, storage areas networks and SQL Server upgrades. Greg can be reached at [email protected]. Learn more about how Edgewood Solutions can deliver ‘databases at their finest’ at
www.edgewoodsolutions.com.
Copyright © 2002-2003 Edgewood Solutions All Rights Reserved
