Cloud is driving unprecedented levels of data growth and demanding strong interdependency between the server, network, and storage environments. Customers like TOTVS agree that in order to properly consolidated and centralize cloud environments, organizations need improved, easy-to-manage Infrastructures, capable of cloud scale and performance.

TOTVS based in Brazil, is that country's market leader and the sixth largest software company in the world, supporting more than 26,000 customers in 23 countries.TOTVS' SAN stores and switches 200 terabits of storage and is growing quickly as customers increasingly prefer to access and run applications in the cloud.

TOTVS' main data center hosts applications that are used by clients, such as TOTVS ERP and Fluig, a platform that allows clients to manage processes, documents and identity through a single interface. Fluig integrates applications including business process management, enterprise content management, analytics, mail, social media, web content management, and Fluig's secure identity management solution.

Business Challenges

• Meet new scalability demands associated with growth
• Simplify SAN management
• Prepare to support Fibre Channel over Ethernet in future

 "Rapid growth is a certainty,"  Fernando says. "As we upgrade our SAN infrastructure, we know that we'll need more scalability and flexibility than ever. When it was time to upgrade our SAN switches, our requirements were high performance, easy manageability, and the ability to eventually support Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet connections in the same switch." Fernando Faustino, TOTVS Data Center Director

Network Solution

After briefly evaluating other options, TOTVS choseto deploy dual redundant SAN fabrics based onCisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Directors. The Cisco MDS 9710 systems are director-class SAN switches designed for deployment in large-scale storage networks to enable enterprise clouds. A comprehensive set of intelligent features on a high-performance, protocol-independent switch fabric meets TOTVS' requirements for uncompromising high availability, scalability, and simplified integration of new technologies.

TOTVS chose Cisco MDS 9148 Multilayer Fabric Switches for its SAN edge. The Cisco MDS 9148 switches are optimized for performance while requiring minimal space. They include industry-leading SAN security to support compliance and regulatory requirements and are easy to deploy and provision. Once deployed, they require no training to operate.

TOTVS also usesCisco Prime? Data Center Network Manager(DCNM). The Cisco DCNM dashboard can manage systems spanning the Cisco Nexus and Cisco MDS 9000 Families, regardless of protocol type such as Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Ethernet, IBM Fibre Connection(FICON), and Small Computer System over IP (iSCSI). As TOTVS moves toward migrating its network switches to the Cisco Nexus Switch family, Cisco DCNM will allow the team to manage LAN and SAN fabrics in a single dashboard.

Business Results 

TOTVS is consolidating and centralizing its SAN infrastructure, which has simplified cabling complexity and reduced cabling  costs by 30 percent. Fewer cards and chassis require less power and cooling, which Faustino expects to see reflected in lower energy costs.

With Cisco DCNM, the IT SAN and LAN teams can share the same management interface with other Cisco data center switches. And in the future, they will also be able to manage high-performance Fibre Channel and FCoE connectivity across a unified fabric

 "Once we fully implemented, we will have more capabilities with great economy of scale," says Faustino. "We can cost-effectively add servers to support a growing portfolio of services and an expanding customer base."

Key Highlights:

• Centralizing SAN infrastructure and reducing cabling costs by 30 percent
• Significantly scaling performance through high-density switch design
• Simplifying management across unified switch fabric

 Why TOTVS choose Cisco MDS ?

The Cisco MDS 9710 architecture provides 16-Gbps line-rate, nonblocking, predictable performance across all traffic conditions for every port in the chassis. High performance and scalability are sustained by redundancy on all major components, including the fabric card. Combined with nondisruptive software upgrades and stateful process restart and failover,the Cisco MDS 9710 is perfectly suited for TOTVS' SAN core

"The Cisco MDS 9710 helps us meet our scalability goals with its high-density design," says Faustino. "We are initially deploying the switches with 8-Gbps capacity, but the Cisco MDS 9710 ultimately gives us up to 24 terabits per second of Fibre Channel system bandwidth and 4/8/16-Gbps full line-rate Fibre Channel ports or 10-Gbps FCoE in a single chassis. We can get up to 1152 Fibre Channel ports in a single rack."

As TOTVS anticipates much growth and success, the Cisco MDS 9710 systems will be there to help the company meet its customers' challenges and remain a leading provider of business services.

"The Cisco MDS 9710 is a powerful switch that will enable us to scale quickly and meet our customers' increasing demands," says Faustino. "It gives us the ability to  migrate our data center architecture to next-generation switching capabilities, adopt FCoE on the same switches when the time is right, and support more users on the same network."

For More Information

• To find out more about Cisco Multilayer Director Switches, visit http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/storage-networking/index.html
• To learn more about TOTVS, visit www.totvs.com/home/us
• Read complete case study here.

Tony Antony
Sr. Marketing Manger
Data Center and Cloud