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The Radicati Group, Inc.
1900 Embarcadero Road,
Suite 206
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Phone 650-322-8059
Fax 650-322-8061
http://www.radicati.com
THE RADICATI GROUP, INC.
Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing
Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private
Cloud Environment
Understanding the Role of Infrastructure to Ensure
Success
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A Whitepaper by The Radicati Group, Inc.
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment
Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................3
1.0 Benefits of Deploying a Private Cloud Solution.........................................................3
2.0 The Role of Virtualization ..........................................................................................4
3.0 EMC’s Value Proposition ...........................................................................................6
4.0 Conclusions and Recommendations .........................................................................11
This whitepaper was sponsored by EMC.
Copyright © February 2013, The Radicati Group, Inc.
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment
INTRODUCTION
Organizations are increasingly moving to the cloud because of the many advantages cloud
computing offers in terms of cost, scalability and easy anywhere access. However, while the
benefits of cloud computing are well understood many organizations are still nervous about the
overall security and privacy of public cloud solutions and are opting instead for private cloud
deployments. Private clouds offer all the same cost and flexibility advantages that have become
synonymous with cloud, while at the same time ensuring a higher degree of services, privacy,
security and overall data protection.
Virtualization is becoming the cornerstone of any private cloud deployment as it enables
organizations to more efficiently build out demanding computing environments. Virtualization
technology lets businesses consolidate multiple computing environments on a single physical
box which translates into key benefits that include lower costs, improved manageability, higher
throughput, higher scalability and more flexible utilization of resources. Taken together, private
cloud computing and virtualization deliver a secure environment that can scale with ease to meet
changing workload demands while typically lowering IT costs and keeping budgets in check.
Nowhere is this more important than in the context of Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft
SharePoint deployments. Microsoft Exchange Server has evolved to be the leading email
platform for mission-critical information delivery, and Microsoft SharePoint which is often
deployed along with it, play an increasingly dominant role in enterprise information sharing and
management.
This whitepaper looks at the benefits of virtual private cloud deployment, and how EMC’s
private cloud virtualization technologies, solutions and services support the implementation of
secure private cloud deployments of Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint.
1.0 BENEFITS OF DEPLOYING A PRIVATE CLOUD SOLUTION
Organizations that are hesitant to abandon their on-premise deployments to embrace public cloud
solutions can find the best of both worlds with a private cloud deployment. Shared computing
resources in a public cloud can easily scare off any business that is nervous about data protection
and security. Private clouds, on the other hand, give businesses the same elements of security and
customization as on-premise deployments since the computing environment is dedicated and
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment
purpose-built to meet the organization’s needs, while delivering on all of the important benefits
of a cloud solution. In particular, private clouds offer the following benefits:

Customization – private clouds are purpose-built to meet an organization’s requirements
and can accommodate any level of customization that is required.

Scalability – private clouds can scale more easily to accommodate new users and
databases as needed.

Predictable on-going costs – private cloud solutions allow businesses to more accurately
budget their costs, and plan any IT investments accordingly.

Simplified management and increased productivity – by providing easier manageability,
private cloud solutions allow organizations to focus their IT talent on managing more
business-driven applications rather than being tied down with low level day to day
management tasks.

Higher uptime – is realized with failover clusters, power backup sources, and other high
availability techniques utilized in a private cloud.

Uniform services – are more easily provided to all users through a private cloud
deployment. Not only does this simplify policy enforcement for employees at branch
offices or users on the road, it also simplifies actual policy creation through a
consolidated management interface.
2.0 THE ROLE OF VIRTUALIZATION
Virtualization technology is essential in building effective private cloud environments.
Virtualization lets businesses deploy multiple computing instances on the same physical server
which translates to cost and management efficiencies across the board. Virtualization inherently
addresses the need for scalability as it allows computing resources to be brought into play on an
“as needed” basis as workload demands change. Two popular virtualization technologies today
are Microsoft’s Hyper-V and VMware’s vSphere. While both solutions have their unique merits,
they both provide the powerful underpinnings necessary to build out a successful virtual private
environment. In particular, virtualization delivers on the following benefits:
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment

Dynamic resources let businesses distribute computing power to servers, business
applications, and other software in each virtual machine (VM) on an as-needed basis.
Virtualization accommodates as many VMs as the machine’s resources can handle, as
opposed to one computing environment on one box in a traditional installation.

On-demand infrastructure lets organizations instantly create new computing
environments. Evaluating new software, testing software updates, and other tasks that
require a dedicated environment can all easily be done on an existing infrastructure
instead of ordering a new system, or wiping an existing server.

Fewer physical servers can save space, maintenance, energy, and other costs.
Virtualizing some or all of a computing environment requires far fewer physical servers
since each server running virtualization software usually has several VMs that each
behave as a physical server. It is not uncommon for the consolidation ratio of dedicated,
physical servers to servers running virtualization software to reach 10:1.

Fewer software licenses for business applications can also be achieved in a virtualized
environment since resources are used more efficiently. As the number of software
licenses can often be divided by a factor of two or more in some scenarios, this benefit
alone is often enough to cost justify the transition to virtualization.

Easier maintenance and software updating can be achieved with virtualization. Software
updates and routine maintenance on traditional server deployments are usually performed
during abnormal business hours, such as midnight on a weekend. Virtualization,
however, lets the IT department take care of these updates during normal business hours
since the update can occur in a new VM while the original VM is still running.

Improved IT staff utilization is also a benefit of fewer physical servers, fewer software
licenses, and easier maintenance. IT personnel can re-focus their energies on managing
more critical business applications.

Favorable licensing for virtualization technologies is also available from many vendors.
The differing license scenarios allow businesses more flexibility in selecting the solution
that offers the best value.
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment

Higher availability and disaster recovery is achievable with virtualization since multiple
VMs on a few servers can be restored much more quickly than an entire farm of
dedicated, physical servers.
3.0 EMC’S VALUE PROPOSITION
EMC has long been recognized as a leader in helping customers of all sizes confidently
consolidate, virtualize and transform their applications to the cloud. EMC is well known for its
integration and support with VMware technologies, however, EMC also fully integrates and
supports Microsoft’s virtualization technologies including Windows Server Hyper-V and
Microsoft System Center.
To successfully implement a virtual private cloud, organizations need to deploy a set of
technologies that can deliver on the following benefits:

Efficient Storage and Content Management – Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft
SharePoint server are all about storage management. As the volume of email continues to
spiral out of control and the amount of information grows, organizations need to be able
to quickly and reliably expand their storage capacity. EMC storage solutions are designed
to meet this need in a way that is transparent to end users while giving IT administrators
clear control over resources. Utilizing hardware and software solutions from EMC, IT
administrators can provide a dynamic environment that easily handles the addition of new
users in Microsoft Exchange Server, or databases for Microsoft SharePoint. EMC offers
the following solutions for storage and information management:
o The VNX series offers a fully customizable unified data storage infrastructure
that expands with ease to support varying information storage requirements. The
VNX family fully supports provisioning, compression, and de-duplication in a
virtual environment with storage configurations available up to more than a
petabyte of data. The VNX series can effectively scale up or down to meet the
storage needs of Microsoft Exchange Server users and SharePoint applications.
The VNXe version is also available as an entry-level solution for smaller
deployments.
o The VMAX Family helps companies reliably accelerate their journey to the
private cloud. The EMC VMAX portfolio is highly reliable and Microsoft
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment
Exchange and SharePoint easily integrate into this environment when deployed in
a private cloud. VMAX fully supports virtualized mission critical applications
like Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint on VMware and Hyper-V delivering
high availability, robust performance and scale, and reduced TCO. Specifically
for Microsoft virtual environments, the VMAX family provides a cohesive
solution for businesses transitioning into a Microsoft based private or hybrid
cloud environment.
o The FAST Suite applies storage optimization on data residing in the storage
array. It works at the array level to migrate storage blocks that are actively
accessed to a higher performing tier, while also moving non-accessed storage
blocks to a lower tier. It spreads data to the most appropriate storage based on
how often the data is accessed and other heuristics. FAST enables organizations
to better scale as data is stored, accessed, and delivered in a processor-efficient
and cost-effective manner. These benefits will be especially noticeable with
Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint given their intensive and
variable storage needs.
o VFCache keeps a copy of frequently used data on a PCI Express card with high
performance memory that renders much faster delivery of data when compared to
a traditional deployment that accesses data from bulk storage. It serves to reduce
latency and is particularly useful to address “hot spots” like SharePoint databases.
VFCache does not rely on processing power from the CPU for its operations, and
in fact serves to offload some of the processing power from the CPU.
o EMC SourceOne is a powerful solution for the long-term archiving of email,
Microsoft SharePoint, file systems and more. SourceOne for SharePoint enables
content archival of wikis, blogs, contacts, and more. Archived content remains
easily accessible with SourceOne for SharePoint, simplifying search and
discovery of archived content. SourceOne for Exchange is capable of scaling from
hundreds to millions of messages per day, with public folder archiving, advanced
reporting, auditing, and more. Archiving data from Microsoft Exchange Server
and Microsoft SharePoint improves their ability to scale since they do not become
bogged down with too much data.

Simple and Efficient Management Capabilities – Creating a simple management interface
for IT administrators can immensely cut down the time and effort needed to run a
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment
successful virtual private cloud. With an efficient management infrastructure in place, IT
administrators can spend more time on important tasks instead of doling out their time to
low level maintenance tasks. EMC has several solutions specifically aimed at easing
management of virtual environments:
o EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) is provided as a free plug-in for
VMware vCenter on all EMC arrays, such as the VNX series. VSI simplifies the
provision and management of VMware vSphere Datastores. From the VSI
interface, administrators can provision storage, clone VMs, compress VMs,
monitor datastores, and more. The ability to quickly and easily access these
features from the VMware vCenter allows much simpler management of any
application installed on a virtual machine.
o EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) is designed to work with Microsoft applications
to provision storage, set permissions, and more. The solution is most useful with
Microsoft SharePoint, but it certainly extends its functionality to other Microsoft
applications, such as Microsoft Exchange Server. ESI can be used as a standalone
solution, or it can integrate with the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) for
an easier deployment by administrators already using MMC.

High-Availability – High-availability is key when deploying mission-critical applications
such as Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint. Keeping these applications
available with minimal downtime is paramount to running a successful organization.
Beyond delivering a robust hardware infrastructure, EMC places a strong focus on
backup, replication, and other technologies that create high-availability for all
deployments. The foundation of availability for private cloud virtualization is backup.
But in virtualized environments, server consolidation can mean overlapping backup
windows and heavy impact on hardware resources – bringing backups to a crawl. This
can stall virtualization projects – or put data at risk because it is not properly backed up,
making recovery uncertain. Key solutions for solving these issues and delivering highavailability include:
o The EMC Avamar deduplication software and system provides unique
capabilities to break through virtual backup barriers, with application consistent
SharePoint and Exchange backup and recovery, tight integration with VMware's
VADP and vCenter, and Changed Block Tracking (CBT) for backup and
recovery. Avamar also delivers the same key advantages for Hyper-V backup as
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment
well. Plus, Avamar’s integration with EMC Data Domain Boost software enables
users to selectively send SharePoint, Exchange, Hyper-V and VMware image
backups to a Data Domain deduplication storage system. With this integration,
administrators can choose the best approach by workload but with the efficiency
and simplicity of Avamar managing it all. As a result, EMC Backup solutions for
virtual environments can help reduce backup times by up to 90%, as well as speed
up recoveries by 30x, help save storage and bandwidth resources, and accelerate
private cloud virtualization1.
o EMC AppSync and EMC Replication Manager were created for situations
where more frequent copies of data are needed beyond a daily backup. Although
AppSync was designed for the VNX platform and Replication Manager was
designed for the VMAX platform, both solutions provide automated applicationaware protection of application data that integrates tightly with array-based
snapshots and continuous data protection technologies. These solutions are
typically used to complement existing backup and native high availability options
by enabling very fast restores of entire databases or single items. In Proven
Solutions tests, it was possible to restore 1TB of Exchange 2010 data in 5 minutes
using EMC AppSync with VNX Snapshots2.

Creating an Environment with Enterprise-Grade Security Features – Security is of
course one of the key concerns in any organization. Maintaining privacy and data
integrity begins with granting and controlling access only to authorized users. Controlling
access, however, is only half the battle since even authorized users can sometimes be
negligent with confidential data. The ability to control how confidential data is used is
just as important as controlling the actual access to it. The RSA division of EMC is
entirely dedicated to developing leading edge security solutions that fully address all
enterprise security needs. In particular, RSA delivers the following solutions which can
be leveraged to build a secure private cloud infrastructure:
o For users accessing data in private clouds, sometimes one-factor authentication is
not sufficient. The SecurID solution from RSA, provides organizations with a
dynamic authentication token that keeps access to user files and corporate email
1
2
Performance data was provided by EMC.
Performance data was provided by EMC.
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment
secure while maintaining a user-friendly authentication experience. RSA SecurID
creates an access point to Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint, and
all other business applications that is virtually impenetrable to outsiders.
o The RSA Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution treats data loss protection on
virtual machines just as it would on a traditional machine. While many DLP
vendors offer a lessened set of data protection features on virtual machines, the
RSA DLP solution can offer the proper protection needed to monitor the range of
data, confidential or not, being passed or stored on virtual machines. A secure
DLP scenario is essential in the context of Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft
Exchange Server deployments which typically contain a great deal of sensitive
organization information.

EMC Global Services, Proven Solution Infrastructure and Support – deploying virtual
private cloud solutions requires careful calibration of resources and a solid understanding
of how individual technology components can best work together. Since several virtual
machines often run on a single box, it is even more important to ensure that the proper
storage, processor, networking, and backup are properly selected. EMC provides
organizations with a variety of proven server configurations that can be used to deploy
Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint virtual private cloud solutions that
take the guess-work away for IT administrators. Customization and installation can be as
detailed as necessary, or the deployment can be created with turn-key packages that
require little effort on the part of IT administrators.
o EMC’s VSPEX Proven Infrastructure is a reference architecture designed for
flexibility and tested and validated by EMC to ensure interoperability and fast
deployment. All factors are considered when building out a system, and each
system can be purpose-built to handle specific business-critical applications.
VSPEX enables organizations to choose the hypervisor, server and networking
components and combine them with EMC’s leading-edge storage and backup
solutions to create a private cloud that supports their virtualized Microsoft
application requirements.
o Beyond the documentation, user forums, and other resources widely available to
customers, EMC also has a professional services team available to help businesses
upgrade, migrate and architect the ideal Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft
SharePoint deployment configuration when setting up a virtual private cloud.
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Benefits of Consolidating and Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint in a Private Cloud Environment
o EMC’s continuing strong working relationship with Microsoft, also gives the
vendor access to a wide range of Microsoft resources that help EMC provide
customers with more effective options and support. Working with Microsoft,
EMC can offer joint support agreements, access to consultants, and other services.
The close relationship with Microsoft also ensures that EMC customers running
Microsoft software and applications will be among the first to receive EMC
solution updates that take advantage of any new Exchange or SharePoint features.
4.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
EMC offers an end-to-end value proposition for organizations looking to build solid virtual
private cloud solutions for Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint. EMC’s wide
range of expertise, support for leading virtualization technologies and breadth of infrastructure
solutions can provide customers with powerful end-to-end virtualization solutions and
confidence to transition to the cloud. EMC provides simple, efficient and flexible private cloud
solutions that can support these Microsoft deployments through EMC VSPEX Proven
Infrastructure. Larger customers, with more complex requirements, can also still build out their
own variations to best meet their specific needs.
EMC solutions provide IT departments with numerous efficiencies in how to deploy a virtual
private cloud environment. From hardware to software, to professional services EMC can deliver
lower TCO and drive a seamless experience for all aspects of IT administration.
More importantly, EMC makes building and managing virtual private cloud solutions a reality
for businesses of all sizes. For most organizations today, virtual private cloud deployments
provide secure email and information management solutions at predictable costs with greater
resiliency, high-availability and effective resource management than ever experienced before.
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