Data Center

Optical transport as the basis for modern disaster recovery management and data

The high dependence on always available IT-systems for the business as well as legal regulations concerning confor-mity and strict testing criteria put the traditional concept of single, centralised data centers more and more into question. This is because the narrow corridors for system availability and restart times resulting from professional bodies such as ITIL or Sarbannes Oxley can often only be realised by geographically distributed data centers.

Emergency management and expanded redundancy concepts

Localised hazards such as earthquakes, major fires or other forms of force majeure can threaten the data stock of a data center and thus place the viability of an entire company in danger. In order to be prepared for such crises in the context of preventative emergency management, the principle of geographical redundancy has been developed in recent years. Various concepts for geographically redundant failure safety currently exist, whether twin data centers, disaster recovery centers or SAN to SAN data replication — all concepts have one thing in common: none of them can be implemented without a sufficiently high-performance network infrastructure.

Optical multiplexing for progressive DC connection

MICROSENS Optical Transmission Platforms combine shortest possible latency with total protocol transparency, thus giving you the perfect basis for integrating backup data centers, distributed databases and remote storage. This is because, due to dynamic routes and fluctuating latency, conventional layer 3-based WAN/MAN networking solutions are no longer suited to depict the challenges of modern computer centers with a correspondingly high degree of virtualisation. Progressive disaster recovery technologies, such as the real time migration of virtual machines, require the inter-site maintenance of broadcast and spanning tree domains. This ensures that, in the event of damage or loss, business-critical applications can be transferred seamlessly from location to location, keeping them available to users with practically no interruption.

Fiber Channel and WDM separation of storage data and payload without additional lines

Although TCP-encapsulated SAN protocols, such as FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet), iSCSI and AoE (ATA over Ethernet), are gaining ground, one decisive technology still dominates the market in the data center environment: Fiber Channel. This offers a high degree of reliability, has a lower overhead and a lower bit error rate than Ethernet-based protocol types. Current solutions can master transfer rates of up to 16 Gbps with multi-level backward compatibility. In many respects, the WDM process is the perfect basis for the transmission of Fiber Channel, as it enables the separate transmission of payload and storage data without having to rent additional lines for the separation of services. The technologies compliment one another with regards to latency periods: especially as for the synchronous transmission of Fiber Channel, important Ethernet typical transport mechanisms are absent, the latency periods increase in importance, particularly in the long haul range. This is because they have a direct impact on link performance, data consistency and memory reliability. With an optimised single-chip muxponder, the ultra-low latency design of the MICROSENS transport platform ensures the stable transmission of storage data even over long distances.

Due to their spatial proliferation along motorways or railway lines, fiber optic lines offer a big target for physical attacks. The optical medium itself may be the target of such attacks, but the monitoring outlets of optical transmission systems are also at risk. Cryptographic real time processes protect storage data and payloads against access by third parties. Optical security solutions offer an affordable alternative for detecting the manipulation of fiber optic lines.

Cryptographic processes and optical monitoring

Since fiber optic lines usually bundle the entire data volume of several locations or data centers, successful spy attacks, for example, directed at unencrypted storage data are a particularly serious matter. After all, losing company secrets or facing claims for damages could have disastrous financial consequences. Depending on your particular security needs, MICROSENS monitoring systems with backup procedures or certified cryptographic solutions can secure fiber optic lines.

Optical detection processes

With the Optical Power Monitor (OPM) from MICROSENS, the optical power level along the fiber is measured continuously and attempts to manipulate the transmission medium thus detected. Tapping of the fiber causes additional attenuation, which reduces the light intensity arriving at the OPM, thus triggering an alarm. A line switchover to a substitute path to be carried out automatically would then be the logical consequence. The optical measurement method of the MICROSENS OPM offers high resolution of 0.1 dB and is thus many times superior to integrated level measurements, for example, on a SFP basis.

Cryptographic processes with wire speed encrypting for latency-sensitive applications

The MICROSENS encryption solution offers certified security with 256 bit AES encryption in real time. This solution is approved by the Federal Office for Information Security according to the standard VS-NfD (NATO Restricted) and thus offers the highest degree of commercially available security. With this solution, even a successful bugging attempt would not cause any damage, as the encrypted information could not be used for subsequent processing. The native support of Fiber Channel makes the solution particularly interesting for the securing of backup data, for example, for the connection of remote storage or DRCs (Disaster Recovery Center).

• QQ High-performance encryption in real time at wire speed QQ
• Protocol support for ATM, SDH, Ethernet and Fiber Channel QQ
• Supported data rates: 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps, transparent to VLAN, MPLS, etc. QQ
• No overhead due to encryption QQ
• Simple integration without intervention in the network infrastructure QQ Support for pluggable SFP/XFP interfaces QQ
• Conformity with FIPS 140-2 L3, CC EAL3, BSI, NATO restricted