Introduction
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, businesses require storage solutions that are not only high-performing but also incredibly reliable and resilient. Micron21’s mCloud platform leverages advanced technologies to provide a 3N clustered Ceph storage-as-a-service solution. This innovative architecture ensures that data is replicated in real-time with minimal latency, creating three copies of your data across three Melbourne-based data centres. Designed for clients who demand real-time replication across different physical locations, our Ceph storage solution offers unparalleled performance, reliability, and scalability.
Ceph Storage: The Backbone of Our Storage Solution
Ceph is an open-source, distributed storage system that provides performance, reliability, and scalability. It unifies object, block, and file storage into a single platform, making it ideal for cloud environments. Ceph’s architecture is built on the Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store (RADOS), which ensures data is automatically replicated, balanced, and recovered across the storage cluster.
Key Features of Ceph:
✔ Scalability: Seamlessly scales from a few nodes to thousands.
✔ High Availability: Eliminates single points of failure through replication and self-healing.
✔ Flexibility: Supports object, block, and file storage in one system.
✔ Performance: Optimized for both high-throughput and low-latency workloads.
3N Replication: Triple Redundancy for Maximum Data Protection
Our Ceph storage solution employs a 3N replication strategy, where N represents the number of copies of data stored. In this case, data is replicated three times across three independent storage nodes located in separate data centres:
✔ Primary Data Centre: Micron21 Kilsyth
✔ Secondary Data Centre: Melbourne CBD
✔ Tertiary Data Centre: Port Melbourne
Benefits of 3N Replication:
✔ Data Durability: Protects against data loss, even with multiple node failures.
✔ High Availability: Ensures continuous access to data during maintenance or outages.
✔ Consistency: Guarantees all copies are up-to-date for real-time data accuracy.
When data is written to the cluster, Ceph synchronously replicates it to all three nodes before acknowledging the write operation. This guarantees that all copies are up-to-date, ensuring clients always read the most recent data.
Each of our Ceph nodes is equipped with enterprise-grade NVMe SSDs, delivering exceptional performance:
✔ Low Latency: NVMe drives communicate directly over the PCIe bus, reducing latency.
✔ High Throughput: Handles intensive read/write operations for high-performance applications.
✔ Enhanced Endurance: Designed for enterprise workloads with high write-intensive operations.
By utilizing NVMe storage, we ensure that data operations are executed swiftly, crucial for applications requiring real-time data access.
Dedicated High-Speed Networking Infrastructure
Our Ceph storage nodes are interconnected via a dedicated, low-latency 100 Gbps Cisco Nexus 9000 (9k) leaf and spine network. This high-performance network is exclusively used for Ceph storage traffic, separate from transit and management networks.
Network Features:
✔ Leaf and Spine Architecture: Provides multiple pathways for data, reducing latency.
✔ 100 Gbps Connectivity: Ensures high bandwidth for data replication and client access.
✔ Low Latency: Critical for synchronous replication across data centres.
✔ Isolation: Dedicated network prevents interference from other traffic types.
By isolating the storage network, we maintain optimal performance and security for data operations.
Geographically Dispersed Data Centres
Our three data centres are geographically separated by at least 45 km, ensuring true physical isolation:
✔ Micron21 Kilsyth Data Centre: Primary site with state-of-the-art infrastructure.
✔ Melbourne CBD Data Centre: Secondary site in the heart of the city.
✔ Port Melbourne Data Centre: Tertiary site offering additional redundancy.
Advantages of Geographical Separation:
✔ Disaster Recovery: Protects against floods, fires, or power outages.
✔ Independent Power Grids: Reduces the risk of simultaneous outages.
✔ Separate Cooling and Network Systems: Minimizes risk of a single point of failure.
Even in the unlikely event of two data centres failing, your data remains safe and accessible from the third.
Dark Fibre Connectivity: Spanning Data Centres
To achieve real-time replication with minimal latency, our data centres are interconnected using dark fibre technology:
✔ Dedicated Fibre Optic Cables: Provides exclusive use of the fibre strands.
✔ High Bandwidth and Low Latency: Supports 100 Gbps speeds for seamless replication.
✔ Secure Communication: Reduces interception risks, enhancing data security.
Dark fibre allows us to fully control our network infrastructure, optimizing it for Ceph’s replication requirements.
Our Ceph storage solution is fully integrated with the OpenStack-based mCloud platform, enabling advanced cloud functionalities:
✔ Virtual Machine Mobility: Deploy or migrate VMs across any of the three data centres instantly.
✔ High Availability (HA): With real-time replication, VMs failover seamlessly between sites.
✔ Scalable Resources: Dynamically allocate compute and storage resources.
Benefits of Integration:
✔ Unified Management: Control compute, storage, and networking from one interface.
✔ Automation: Use OpenStack’s orchestration tools for automated scaling.
✔ Flexibility: Supports cloud-native and legacy applications.
Ideal for Mission-Critical, Always-On Services
Our 3N clustered Ceph storage is designed for organizations that cannot afford downtime:
✔ Financial Institutions: Require zero data loss and uninterrupted access.
✔ Healthcare Providers: Need secure, always-available access to patient records.
✔ E-commerce Platforms: Downtime directly impacts revenue and customer trust.
✔ Government Agencies: Demand high security and resilience for critical operations.
Conclusion
Micron21’s 3N clustered Ceph storage-as-a-service offers an exceptional combination of performance, reliability, and resilience. By leveraging NVMe storage, a dedicated 100 Gbps Cisco 9k network, and dark fibre connectivity, we provide a storage solution that meets the most demanding enterprise requirements.
Our integration with OpenStack mCloud further enhances flexibility and scalability, allowing businesses to manage and deploy resources efficiently across multiple data centres. With real-time replication and geographic redundancy, your data remains protected under virtually any scenario.
Experience unparalleled storage performance and resilience with Micron21’s mCloud Ceph storage solution. Contact us today to learn how we can support your business’s critical infrastructure needs.
