Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > White Papers > Consolidate Mixed Database Workloads on the Dell EMC VxBlock System 1000 > Use case description
Database workload consolidation has many benefits and challenges. Perhaps the greatest single benefit is that it enables the business to increase infrastructure utilization without sacrificing performance, speed, and throughput to respond to complex and frequent incoming requests. The challenge, however, is to design and deliver an optimal, integrated solution that ensures cost savings and investment value. This use case considers all these factors and is designed to reduce the complexities of modern databases by offering a fully engineered solution with life-cycle management. A blend of the multivendor and CI approaches offers an integrated and tested solution that is designed for mixed database workloads.
We designed and tested this reference architecture for SQL Server and Oracle databases running on a validated infrastructure that includes Cisco servers and the Dell EMC PowerMax 8000 storage array to support the mixed workloads. The PowerMax 8000 array can take fast, write-consistent snapshots of databases using Dell EMC SnapVX. The DBA can then configure the snapshot databases and open them to the business. This database cloning approach enables the IT organization to quickly provision copies of production databases for testing and development.