Questions and Answers on Automation and Orchestration

KH: How important is data management and orchestration for your data center and private cloud?

RP: Orchestration provides much needed pain relief in our cloud data center. Tintri allows us to manage data by taking a quick look at all the storage components of our software-defined data center (SDDC) or cloud services infrastructure, also extending into compute with per-VM and per-Instance visibility. With automation, including self-deployment, snapshotting, sync, and so on, we can allocate our human resources to higher level activities where they are most needed, trusting Tintri orchestration and automation for repetitive tasks.

KH: Can you dig a little deeper into TGC as an orchestration engine?

RP: This aspect becomes critical when resources are limited and a cloud service provider is rapidly expanding. If you don’t want to be overwhelmed by the market, the only way forward is automation.

KH: Can you list the top three advantages you get from using Tintri in your data centers?

RP:

1. Integration. In a dense SDDC, every component must be integrated on some level with all the others. It’s like a production line: when the first step goes smoothly then the next one goes faster, and so on. Production goes more quickly, and the whole product is better.
2. Simplicity. TGC allows us to manage every aspect of one of the most important elements of a data center—storage. It provides quick and easy access to the SDDC for our team.
3. Performance. Customers need more than promises—they need proof. With Tintri, we can address our customers’ enterprise-grade needs with tunable performance. Our marketing and salesforce can offer pricing plans emphasizing QoS and performance-based criteria, providing a “platinum” storage plan for our customers.

KH: With TGC as your global orchestrator, how does SyncVM fit in your data center?

RP: We use TGC as an orchestrator to provide snapshots of our most critical VMs, especially the ones that take a long time because of vdisk size. Assigning this task to TGC offloads vCenter and takes pressure off the whole infrastructure.

KH: With regards to data management, how has SyncVM helped you?

RP: For enterprise cloud, TGC is the must-have infrastructure management tool and SyncVM is the must-have data management tool. SyncVM is about automating and accelerating the process of restoring files, so we can respond very quickly without spending time on trivial tasks. TGC provides tools and a bird’s eye view across the SDDC.

The ability to have snapshots, backups, and especially, time-zero restore due to SyncVM enables us to eliminate many smaller, single-function tools—too many honestly—that saved data, picked up VMs, and extracted single files. Each one of those does a little operation, and each one takes lot of time.

So, once again, SyncVM helps us have much more time to assign to higher level tasks (or simply, to have more family time).

And I’d like to underline my last words. Tintri gives all of us more free time. Our families love Tintri as much as we do!

Tintri CTO Kieran Harty discussed how service provider CloudItalia uses Tintri Global Center and SyncVM to automate its enterprise cloud. 

Tintri CTO Kieran Harty (KH) discussed Tintri Global Center (TGC) and SyncVM with Cloud Specialist Raffaello Poltronieri (RP) of Clouditalia.

Clouditalia is the first Italian company to provide state-of-the-art integrated cloud and telecommunications services dedicated to medium-sized companies. Founded in 2012, Clouditalia now delivers a wide range of tailored and integrated telecommunications, connectivity, and cloud computing solutions with enhanced connectivity to major network sites including Rome, Milan, Naples, and Arezzo.