Most SCCM admins know that the world’s largest companies use Adaptiva OneSite Anywhere to eliminate SCCM infrastructure (DPs, PXE servers, SMPs). Few know about our peer-to-peer storage technology from the future that nobody else thought of but everybody needs.
Here are my top four smart storage features of OneSite Anywhere that are ahead of their time:
#1 Takes no Disk Space from End Users
The Smart Storage from the Future will actually take no space from end users. Adaptiva calls it Zero Footprint Caching. No matter how much SCCM content is stored on a peer system, the user still sees all of their disk space as free and can write to it at any time. Other technologies take space away from end users. Only advanced engineering from OneSite Anywhere caches virtually unlimited SCCM content while users still retain all their disk space.
In the future, administrators will work at higher level and won’t have to fuss with tedious tasks like cache configuration decisions, maintenance, or cleanup. Adaptiva’s peer-to-peer storage takes care of itself 100%. There’s literally nothing for admins to do, so you can use your time and brain power for better things. Oh yeah, and you won’t have to deal with end users complaining about losing disk space, because they won’t lose any.
#2 IntelliStaging (Intelligent, Self-managing Pre-staging)
When pre-staging SCCM content using peer-to-peer technology (software updates, applications, OS images, task sequence content, etc.), data is downloaded over the WAN into the caches of peer machines. This allows computers a facility to cache content ahead of time so it’s locally available without WAN download delays whenever needed. Administrators can target the exact machines/collections where they want each piece of content to be cached. It’s basic P2P networking that OneSite Anywhere has been doing for five years, and others have just recently introduced (with the exception that some products still can’t pre-stage certain types of content like software updates, only OneSite Anywhere does that).
Now you have to ask yourself, “If I have 500 operating locations, do I really have time to decide which specific computers at every single one of them should cache pre-staged content? When some of those machines go out of service, will I remember to update the lists with new ones? Will I have time?” Probably not. That’s why Adaptiva OneSite Anywhere invented a technology everybody will use in the future: IntelliStage. It automatically selects the best-suited computers at a location to store cached content based on a variety of criteria such as chassis type, OS, uptime, storage, etc. In the future, you won’t have to do a ton of tedious work just to pre-stage content, and you will still be able to target specific machines if desired—admins will truly have a choice!
OneSite Anywhere does all that right now, but Adaptiva takes IntelliStage even further into the future. An administrator can specify a minimum number of copies to keep at a location. OneSite Anywhere will replicate the content locally to create the desired number of copies. Then if machines go offline or out of service, or need to remove the content from the cache, OneSite Anywhere will create another copy or copies as needed to keep the minimum number, maintaining redundancy and high-availability. It’s an invaluable boost to business continuity that only Adaptiva offers, and so easy for administrators—you set it once and forget it.
#3 Content-aware Caches
Old school techniques for removing data from caches have been around for decades, such as “pinning” content so it stays no matter what, deleting the oldest content first, or using a “toolkit” to manually manage caches one system at a time.
With technology from the future, every peer knows exactly what pieces of content exist on all the other caches everywhere. With OneSite Anywhere, every byte worldwide is targeted and tracked with exacting precision. So, if a peer system’s cache fills up, and files must be removed to make room for new content, OneSite Anywhere does something nobody else can. It automatically removes the content that already exists on the largest number of other peers at that location.
For example, if one package exists on three computers at an office, while another package exists on only one system, OneSite Anywhere will delete the former. Someday, all storage will be like this. In 2015, only OneSite Anywhere can do it. It’s yet another way OneSite Anywhere makes the smartest possible choice to ensure future content availability after a one-time download, and the administrator doesn’t have to think about it or lift a finger.
#4 Automatic Removal of Deleted SCCM Content
Why would a cache hold on to content that everybody knows will never be needed?
Decades from now, all caches will automatically remove content that will never be used, just like OneSite Anywhere. If a package is deleted from SCCM, it is automatically removed from all caches that store that package—worldwide. There’s no configuration to do, no box to check. It just happens because it’s obvious that it should. It’s another Adaptiva benefit those users of other SCCM peer-to-peer technologies don’t get.
These four powerful storage capabilities are a small peek into the vast universe of Adaptiva-only technologies that OneSite Anywhere delivers, yet they are enough to radically shrink the daily task list of an SCCM administrator.
If you’re not already running OneSite Anywhere, Adaptiva invites you to request a demo.
