DataCore Software: 2011 Perspectives on the Shifting Economies of Storage Virtualization Software, Private Clouds and Virtual Desktops

"The business return on investment of a pure ‘software infrastructure,' where you pay once for intelligent software to manage, protect and get more from your storage assets - as they come and go from generation to generation and brand to brand - is a value proposition that is as compelling as it is inevitable."- George Teixeira, President and CEO, DataCore Software
 
Read the top 5 predictions for 2011 from DataCore Software at: http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/12/16/datacore-2011-perspectives-on-the-shifting-economies-of-storage-virtualization-software-private-clouds-and-virtual-desktops.aspx 

Storage Virtualization Software is Key to Cloud Performance

Current projects emphasize the growing need for high performance and highly available storage for the cloud. Case in point – DataCore Software recently implemented its SANsymphony™ software at Waterstons. This major IT service provider offers cloud hosting services from a purpose-built Tier 3 data center in the North of England. Based on Dell storage hardware, VMware and DataCore's SANsymphony software – configured in a redundant configuration, it offers all the high availability and resilience that Waterstons' high-end cloud hosting service requires. Through SANsymphony's built-in agility and thin-provisioning software, Waterstons' clients can access storage “on-the-fly” from the VMware server farm. Andrew Kershaw, Technical Director at Waterstons, explains, "Through our cloud-based service, we are able to offer new and innovative ways of supporting clients and solving their business and technology problems. With the VMware and DataCore combination, we can respond to demands extremely quickly and on a very flexible basis, which often is simply not the case with traditional infrastructure."

Host.net, one of the largest hosting services in the USA, delivers private cloud computing services for companies ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, utilizing a true software-based approach to attain the greatest flexibility and to deliver 100% uptime. "We chose VMware, DataCore and Cisco in the core design of our vPDC platform because each vendor delivers the very best virtualization component in their respective areas of competence," says Jeffrey Slapp, Vice President of Virtualization Services for Host.net. He states that many companies have signed on as new customers because of the competitive advantages they have achieved with this combination of technologies and architecture.

Top 10 Ways to Reduce Storage Costs - Software Based Storage Virtualization

http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/management/article.php/3908676/Top-10-Ways-to-Trim-Storage-Costs.htm

Software Virtualization

There are many ways to virtualize storage. In some cases, the vendor suggests throwing away old hardware to buy a brand new virtualization array. A cheaper way is to leave legacy disk in place and incorporate it into a shared storage pool using software-based virtualization.

“With software-based storage virtualization, you can take full advantage of disk resources already in place before you spend any money on additional capacity,” said Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing, DataCore Software.

InformationWeek Landmark Report on Storage Virtualization: How To Break Free From Tier 1 SAN Vendors

We've all grown comfortable with the server virtualization model, where you buy intelligent software and run your choice of hardware. Why should storage be any different? It shouldn't, and a number of vendors are providing the means to finally sever this bond. By offering flexible, standards-based storage virtualization and management software that will run on any x86 platform, DataCore, FalconStor and others extend a tantalizing promise: Pay once for intelligent software and run it on the hardware of your choice. Get the software virtualization layer in place, and the possibilities are endless...

http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/virtualization/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228000296

Virtualization Review SuperCast: The Time to Virtualize Storage is NOW!

In this FREE supercast event, now available on demand, learn why storage virtualization is quickly moving from nice-to-have to need-to-have status and how to successfully deploy and optimize virtual environments.

Title: The Time to Virtualize Storage is NOW

Keynote: Jon Toigo, CEO Toigo Partners International, Chairman Data Management Institute
Storage expert Jon Toigo is a columnist for Enterprise Systems and contributing writer for Virtualization Review. He is a consultant, blogger and author of 15 books on business technology, disaster recovery and data storage.

Join industry leaders for a free supercast designed to help you understand the growing need and value of virtualized storage, as well as tips and strategies for implementation and optimization.

Featured Presentations include:
Secrets to 100% Uptime in a Virtualized Environment by DataCore

Virtualization Begets Virtualization: Extending Efficiency and Business Agility

Interesting article:
http://www.enterprisestrategygroup.com/2010/08/virtualization-begets-virtualization-extending-efficiency-and-business-agility/

Storage virtualization is often combined with server virtualization. Storage virtualization (functionality that takes multiple storage systems and treats those devices as a single, centrally-managed pool of storage) provides an additional opportunity to reduce IT costs and optimize efficiency—especially as server virtualization proliferates. ESG research indicates that among current server virtualization users, 86% report they have storage virtualization initiatives as a top spending priority over the next 12 to 18 months. The combination often amplifies the benefits of both forms of virtualization: lowering costs, improving resource utilization, increasing availability, simplifying upgrades, and enabling scalability.

As organizations become more comfortable with one form of virtualization, they don’t have to make great intellectual or philosophical leaps in order to grasp the concept of virtualizing other data center domains. Oftentimes, IT organizations undertaking complete data center refresh initiatives have virtualization as top of mind and would look to extract all possible efficiencies in one fell swoop by deploying virtualization in multiple technology areas.

DataCore does NAS? DataCore Software Brings Unprecedented Storage Scalability, Performance and High-Availability to Microsoft Clustered File Shares, Hyper-V Failover Cluster CSVs and Metro Clusters

Spotlights Customer Use Cases, High-Availability NAS and Cluster Best Practices
At the recent Microsoft Tech-Ed Europe 2010, DataCore Software, a leading provider of storage virtualization software, demonstrated major breakthroughs to enhance the availability, scalability and performance of Failover Clustering in Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 with Hyper-V™. Several case studies and white papers are available to highlight how IT organizations can benefit operationally and financially from these joint solutions.

The two most common use cases for DataCore in Microsoft Failover Cluster scenarios involve virtualizing and mirroring storage resources across physically-separated storage devices for:

• Clustered Shared Volumes (CSVs)
• Clustered File Shares

Many DataCore customers at the event explained the technical aspects behind their real-world implementations. Featured among them was the Swiss-based hospital, Regionalspital Emmental (RSE) AG, where DataCore software fully virtualizes the shared storage infrastructure for RSE’s Exchange, SQL and medical applications. RSE operates 15 physical servers and over 50 virtual machines running on top of Hyper-V.

“Server virtualization from Microsoft Hyper-V combined with storage virtualization software from DataCore form an integral part of our IT strategy, significantly lowering costs for hardware, energy and administration,” states Falko Gieldanowski, Head of IT at RSE AG. "We are currently saving around 30% by better optimizing the use of our time and resources and from the resulting increase in productivity – and we anticipate further savings over the lifetime of our infrastructure."

What’s New: HA NAS - Eliminating Storage-related Downtime for Clustered File Shares
One of the topics that was spotlighted during Tech-Ed Europe 2010, was how to keep storage from becoming a single-point-of-failure for clustered file shares. DataCore explained how its software along with Microsoft's built-in capabilities could be combined to provide a true high-availability NAS capability, best of all no additional software or hardware are required to implement the capability. For more information and further details on how to achieve high-availability NAS, please contact: info@datacore.com .

Non-Stop Data Access: Virtualizing and Speeding-up SANs for CSVs

US-based Stockbridge Capital Group deploys DataCore storage virtualization software with Microsoft Hyper-V to meet their business continuity needs. Two synchronously- mirrored DataCore nodes keep the storage infrastructure, especially the CSVs, highly available to ensure non-stop data access from a cluster of seven (7) Hyper-V servers hosting over 25 virtual machines. Prior to virtualization, Stockbridge had well over 30 physical servers.

“DataCore’s storage virtualization solution offers all of the high-end features, including enterprise-class high availability, but at an affordable price,” comments Stephen Pilch, COO, Stockbridge. “DataCore software lets us easily leverage our investment in existing and new technologies and empower our virtual servers to meet non-stop business needs while fitting our budget. It is a perfect match for us.”

The virtualized storage configuration services the needs of Stockbridge’s Microsoft Exchange server along with the file repositories used by all their employees. “We were pleasantly surprised that the iSCSI SAN, because of DataCore, actually performed better than the existing fibre SAN, in terms of its speed and accessibility,” notes Cem Kursunoglu, president at BayNODE. Read the full story here.

Large Scale Metro Clusters Rely on Microsoft and DataCore

Continuum Health Partners ("Continuum") relies on DataCore SANsymphony™ software to virtualize and manage well over 200 Terabytes of storage for the various hospitals in the Continuum hospital network. The DataCore-powered infrastructure supports a community of 14,000 users on over five-hundred (500) servers with storage devices split between different locations in metropolitan New York.

"DataCore storage virtualization software is the key to the virtualization puzzle - offering the flexible storage virtualization dimension needed for any virtualization project - and serving as the perfect complement to server virtualization as well as the perfect enhancement to storage hardware," explains Jill Wojcik, IT Director at Continuum Health Partners.

Microsoft solutions running on the DataCore virtualized infrastructure at Continuum include: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Cluster Servers (MSCSs. For a more in-depth case study on this deployment, please visit: www.datacore.com/continuum .
 
To receive a white paper describing the techniques used to provide uninterrupted access to Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) by synchronously mirroring across storage devices split between hot-hot sites, please download it at: www.datacore.com/metroclusters .

DataCore Software and Fusion-io Technology Alliance Partnership; Customers Realize Performance Gains and Energy Savings

This week Fusion-io launched its Fusion-io Technology Alliance Program. DataCore Software is pleased to be a Fusion-io Technology Alliance Partner. Fusion-io’s solid state storage solutions combined with DataCore storage virtualization software achieve new levels of performance, high availability and energy efficiency when the two technologies are deployed together. Customers that are implementing Fusion-io as a server class memory tier across DataCore-powered storage area networks are experiencing unprecedented levels of I/O performance through tiered caching. One example of this is the German company NIEDAX GROUP, which is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electrical installation equipment.

NIEDAX GROUP utilizes DataCore to accelerate storage performance along with high speed NAND flash memory from Fusion-io for its private cloud service. DataCore’s storage virtualization software takes advantage of server RAM memory to cache and accelerate storage I/Os, while the flash memory from Fusion-io acts as another tier of high-speed memory to further accelerate performance for critical applications.

DataCore’s technology enables effective sharing of these devices across the storage pool and provides the ability to use SAN-wide features across different vendor hardware arrays and devices. Thus it is a very cost-effective way to fully utilize all the storage available and to mirror and protect data. According to Oliver Bauer, Team Leader Administration/IT at NIEDAX GROUP. "We gained tremendous performance from adding DataCore and Fusion-io and overall we reduced our energy and cooling costs."

For a more in-depth overview of DataCore and Fusion-io at NIEDAX GROUP, see:
DataCore_Virtualizes_FusionIO_Solid_State_Disks_SSDs_and_HP_Storage_Arrays_into_a_High_Performance_and_Energy_Efficient_SAN_for_NIEDAX_GROUP

For more on DataCore Software and Fusion-io at NIEDAX GROUP, check out the following videos from VMworld TV: http://siliconangle.tv/search/node/george%20teixeira

VMworld 2010 Europe: DataCore Software Eliminates Business Outages in VMware VIEW and vSphere Environments; Showcases Growing Base of VMware and DataCore Customer Successes

DataCore's software-based storage virtualization and high-availability approach is key to cloud-based and virtualized IT environments

COPENHAGEN –  At VMworld Europe 2010, DataCore Software is providing insights into new developments and highlights a growing number of applications and solutions being deployed at customer sites in conjunction with DataCore’s VMware-certified storage virtualization platforms. DataCore is highlighting the seamless integration of complementary technologies for private and public cloud computing. In addition, DataCore is showcasing cost-effective customer SAN deployments – virtualized with DataCore and VMware vSphere and VIEW – that are proven to meet the demands for virtual server and virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs) that need high-availability, fast performance and archival solutions.

"At VMworld Europe 2010, cloud, desktop and storage virtualization are high on the agenda of attending end users and solution providers. The greater flexibility and high performance requirements for storage in virtual desktop infrastructures are also usually associated with high costs that can jeopardize the completion of virtualization and consolidation projects,” says Christian Hagen, Vice President of EMEA Channel & Sales Operations at DataCore Software. "DataCore overcomes the cost barrier. Our software solutions enable the integration of existing and new storage regardless of the underlying brand of storage hardware. The software revalues existing storage devices with the highest reliability and performance and transforms it into cost-efficient, flexible, shared storage – especially for VDI environments and other critical applications. We are seeing strong demand for our cost-effective solutions in this area."

Storage Virtualization Software is Key to Cloud Performance
Current projects emphasize the growing need for high performance and highly available storage for the cloud. Case in point – DataCore Software recently implemented its SANsymphony™ software at Waterstons. This major IT service provider offers cloud hosting services from a purpose-built Tier 3 data center in the North of England. Based on Dell storage hardware, VMware and DataCore's SANsymphony software – configured in a redundant configuration, it offers all the high availability and resilience that Waterstons' high-end cloud hosting service requires. Through SANsymphony's built-in agility and thin-provisioning software, Waterstons' clients can access storage “on-the-fly” from the VMware server farm. Andrew Kershaw, Technical Director at Waterstons, explains, "Through our cloud-based service, we are able to offer new and innovative ways of supporting clients and solving their business and technology problems. With the VMware and DataCore combination, we can respond to demands extremely quickly and on a very flexible basis, which often is simply not the case with traditional infrastructure."

Host.net, one of the largest hosting services in the USA, delivers private cloud computing services for companies ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, utilizing a true software-based approach to attain the greatest flexibility and to deliver 100% uptime. "We chose VMware, DataCore and Cisco in the core design of our vPDC platform because each vendor delivers the very best virtualization component in their respective areas of competence," says Jeffrey Slapp, Vice President of Virtualization Services for Host.net. He states that many companies have signed on as new customers because of the competitive advantages they have achieved with this combination of technologies and architecture.

The German NIEDAX GROUP, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electrical installation equipment, utilizes DataCore to accelerate storage performance along with high speed NAND flash memory from Fusion-io for its private cloud service. The software takes advantage of server RAM memory to cache and accelerate storage I/Os, while the flash memory from Fusion-io acts as another tier of high-speed memory to further accelerate performance for critical applications. The software approach enables effective sharing of these devices across the storage pool and provides the ability to use SAN-wide features across different vendor hardware arrays and devices. Thus it is a very cost-effective way to fully utilize all the storage available and to mirror and protect all the data. "We are happy with our DataCore investment and we are benefiting from the many functional and financial benefits of putting it in use," states Oliver Bauer, Team Leader Administration/IT at NIEDAX GROUP. "We gained tremendous performance from adding DataCore and Fusion-io SSDs and overall we reduced our energy and cooling costs."

Compliance and Virtual Archives with DataCore and iTernity
At VMworld Europe 2010, DataCore continues to work with and integrate with an ever- growing base of important applications that impact the storage environments. A flexible and independent virtualization software layer is a prerequisite for value-added applications and functions such as archival and compliance software. Successfully tested and proven in a number of joint customer projects, DataCore’s SANmelody™ and SANsymphony™ have been deployed successfully in conjunction with iTernity™ Compliant Archive Solution (iCAS™) in a certified architecture that supports long-term archiving.

With the DataCore and iTernity solutions, users are able to obtain an expandable, secure and cost-efficient archiving solution that meets regulatory compliance and archival demands in VMware virtual environments.

VMworld 2010 Europe takes place at the Bella Center Copenhagen, Denmark from Oct 12th – 14th. Meet the DataCore experts for virtualization at booth No. 81.

DataCore Software Fuels Growth, Adds Key Virtualization Industry Veterans to Scale Channel Operations as New Partners "Catch the Storage Virtualization Wave

http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/10/08/datacore-software-fuels-growth-adds-key-virtualization-industry-veterans-to-scale-channel-operations-as-new-partners-catch-the-storage-virtualization-wave.aspx

DataCore Software, today announced that the company has continued to attract top talent from VMware and Citrix in key executive positions to fuel growth and to take the company to the forefront of the virtualization market space. DataCore has hired Dan Hascall as the new Vice President of Americas Sales, promoted Martin Clancy to the position of Chief Financial Officer, and appointed Johan Vanhaeren as the new regional director covering the Benelux countries.

“With over 6,000 customers worldwide and nearly 20,000 licenses shipped, we are tapping the wave of virtualization that has spread from servers and desktops to storage,” comments George Teixeira, president and CEO, DataCore Software. “Storage virtualization software, like its server and desktop virtualization cousins, is all about software that lives beyond the life of storage devices that come and go over time, making users’ storage investments better and more economical. Adding these industry veterans to our management team comes as we prepare an even more aggressive push to the reseller community and to virtualization users. We are hiring experienced virtualization industry leaders to fuel our growth as storage virtualization takes center stage and becomes more and more mainstream – both in the enterprise and in the Cloud.”

Widely recognized as the software leader in storage virtualization, DataCore has continued its double digit growth despite recessionary times. DataCore’s software solutions enable data centers and IT departments to better manage, consolidate and maximize storage capacity as well as to leverage existing hardware in order to protect and serve storage assets to VMware, Microsoft and Citrix virtual servers and desktops.

DataCore Doubles North America Sales Team; Hires Dan Hascall, New Vice President of Sales for the Americas
Building for growth in North America, in 2010 DataCore has doubled its North America sales team and hired Dan Hascall, formerly of VMware, to lead it as the new Vice President of Americas Sales. Hascall came to VMware in 2006 and helped develop VMware’s channel model and was responsible for the company’s Western Channel region. “DataCore is well-positioned for major success in both the network and Cloud computing models,” states Hascall. “And my question to users is simply ‘Why haven’t you virtualized your storage?’ Virtualization applies equally well to servers, desktops and storage. With DataCore, the move to storage virtualization is painless and partners can offer real value and strategic business agility to their customers. DataCore storage virtualization is the critical foundation that makes it easy for customers to move along the virtualization journey.”

Finance & Operations Expertise with a Channel Mindset: DataCore Promotes Martin Clancy to Chief Financial Officer
Martin Clancy has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer at DataCore Software. Clancy came to DataCore from Citrix Systems, a marquee virtualization vendor with a blue-chip reseller community and an extraordinarily channel-oriented mindset. In his twelve years with Citrix, Clancy served in a variety of financial and operations roles, the last one being Senior Director, Finance & Product Operations for the Desktop Division.

“DataCore is seeing a lot of growth and the numbers are compelling,” notes Clancy. “The appetite for virtualization technologies stems from the fact that these technologies give organizations that use them freedom. But from the perspective of CFO, I look at the tangible business benefits that virtualization brings, and they are incredibly persuasive on the storage-side. Virtualizing storage resources means that institutions are not locked in to a particular storage vendor and therefore gain greater purchasing power; they can avoid downtime, planned or unplanned; improve the performance of storage devices; mix current storage devices with newly purchased equipment; and, most importantly, stay within a budget.”

Worldwide Momentum in the Channel: DataCore Hires New Director of the Benelux Region
DataCore has also appointed Johan Vanhaeren, based in Belgium, as director for the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg) region. Vanhaeren was the former country manager for Citrix in the Benelux region. “Just like its storage virtualization and desktop virtualization counterparts, DataCore storage virtualization software is changing the way resellers, solution providers and virtualization administrators manage and deploy virtualization projects and Clouds,” said Vanhaeren. “And this adoption is worldwide in its scope. The virtualization phenomenon knows no boundaries.”

Adds Teixeira, “More companies and institutions of all sizes are experiencing first-hand the power that comes from embracing DataCore’s software-based approach to storage virtualization, which includes achieving the highest degree of availability, flexibility and openness for their storage. We will continue to build our leadership team and company to help bring the benefits of DataCore storage virtualization to customers worldwide, helping them to evolve their current storage environments to attain the added benefits of virtualization.”

Citrix Synergy 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software Improves Availability and Performance While Overcoming the High Capital and Operational Costs of Storage for Virtual Desktops

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=16289
At Citrix Synergy 2010 in Berlin, DataCore Software, a leading provider of storage virtualization, is highlighting how joint Citrix and DataCore customers have benefited from performance gains, improved availability and cost efficiencies resulting from virtualizing their desktops, servers and storage. DataCore delivers a cost-effective storage infrastructure for Citrix Virtual Servers and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) by avoiding the need to “rip and replace” existing storage and SANs, thereby avoiding large, upfront capital expenses and greatly reducing ongoing operational costs.

“For more than two decades, Citrix Systems has been deploying virtualization solutions. This experience pays off; with our continuous advancements in desktop and server virtualization, we are making this technology accessible to a broad customer base,” says Jens Luebben, Managing Director Germany and Area Vice President Central Europe at Citrix Systems Inc. “After having successfully launched Citrix Technology Alliance last year, we continue to work joint projects with DataCore that have been proven in practice. Together with storage virtualization partners like DataCore, we want to use Citrix Synergy 2010 to respond to the most pressing questions about virtualization.”


Virtual Desktop Infrastructures along with Citrix XenServer, XenDesktop and XenApp require failsafe and centralized storage solution, but in many cases this is jeopardized due to the high costs involved. With DataCore's storage virtualization, users can easily create cost-effective "shared" storage for virtual servers and desktops from new and existing storage capacities. Customers benefit from investment protection, higher capacity utilization, better performance and affordable, high availability storage.

By virtualizing disk storage devices from different brands and vendors, DataCore™ software eliminates incompatibilities across generations, models and manufacturers and maximizes the joint value of these resources. Thus, storage-related disruptions, bottlenecks and financial hurdles which threaten virtualization projects, can be eliminated. This reduces costs, minimizes risks and increases productivity.

Virtualization is Three-Dimensional: Efficiency Impacts Desktops, Servers and Storage

Many successful installations with Citrix and DataCore worldwide illustrate the three-dimensional virtualization spanning desktops, servers and storage. Clemens Albrecht, Head of IT at Plakanda Management AG, a service provider of outdoor advertising in Switzerland, says, “We are very pleased with our decision to implement a virtualization strategy with Citrix and DataCore. With the combination of SANmelody™ and the Citrix XenServer and Citrix Essentials we benefit from having dynamic storage management, reduced administration and long-term cost savings.”

German hospital Muldental is also relying on a virtual infrastructure based on Citrix and DataCore. “Virtualization with DataCore and Citrix has reduced our hardware and software costs, simplified the administration and provided the flexibility for responding to requests quickly and efficiently. We can import updates for hundreds of identical desktops in a few minutes, or set up a special server such as one for the endoscopy department. DataCore's storage virtualization software ensures that our IT is continuously operating. A fact that we greatly depend on,” says Thomas Enderlein, IT Manager at Muldental.

See more information on effective storage solutions for Citrix with DataCore Software at http://www.datacore.com/solutions/govirt-citrix.asp .

Wall Street Journal Blog: When Consolidation Fosters Innovation -6 Companies worth Watching includes DataCore Software

6 Companies to Watch, check the list: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/09/29/when-consolidation-fosters-innovation-among-start-ups/


Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing for the storage virtualization firm DataCore Software Corp., says “our pitch to buyers is, whoever they buy their storage infrastructure from, we can help them maximize the value of that infrastructure.”

Fujitsu & DataCore Storage Virtualization Software

Network Computing: Fujitsu Maximizes Business Continuity And Flexibility Of Cloud Storage Architectures With DataCore Storage Virtualization

http://www.networkcomputing.com/storage-networking-management/datacore-software-fujitsu-maximizes-business-continuity-and-flexibility-of-cloud-storage-architectur.php

ChannelPros: DataCore Software and Fujitsu Technology Solutions Validate Integration of Products

Fujitsu has validated the integration of its data center storage and server systems with DataCore storage virtualization software, in order to minimize the risks for enterprises switching to virtualized and cloud storage architectures. http://www.channelprosmb.com/article/20444/DataCore-Software-and-Fujitsu-Technology-Solutions-Validate-Integration-of-Products/

SearchStorage: Fujitsu bundles DataCore storage virtualization software
DataCore Software Corp. said Fujitsu has validated its SANsymphony storage virtualization software, and Fujitsu will sell the integrated DataCore software on its Eternus storage systems and Primergy servers. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid5_gci1519941,00.html 

DataCore Software: Fujitsu Maximizes Business Continuity and Flexibility of Cloud Storage Architectures with DataCore Storage Virtualization

A Fujitsu-Qualified Integration of DataCore SANsymphony™ with Fujitsu ETERNUS and PRIMERGY Products Will Provide Customers with More Interoperable and Flexible Solutions and Options for Customized Storage Infrastructures
DataCore Software announced that Fujitsu has validated the integration of its data center storage and server systems with DataCore storage virtualization software, in order to minimize the risks for enterprises switching to virtualized and cloud storage architectures.

Jens-Peter Seick, Senior Vice President Product Division Datacenter Systems at Fujitsu Technology Solutions states, “By combining our server and storage solutions with DataCore software, customers benefit from storage consolidation in various usage scenarios. We deliver complete storage pool architectures customized to our customers’ ever-changing needs - via a single source.”

Initially available in Europe within Austria, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, the pre-tested and qualified solutions combining Fujitsu ETERNUS and PRIMERGY with DataCore SANsymphony are available immediately via local distributors. With the Fujitsu and DataCore combination, customers can easily provision storage within their cloud infrastructures in real-time, while improving business continuity by removing single points of failure. DataCore adds a new level of high-availability and makes it possible to move data and virtual machines as needed, where needed in a true cloud storage architecture.

Christian Hagen, Vice President EMEA at DataCore Software comments, “The combined Fujitsu and DataCore solutions enable our two customer bases to easily build powerful, extremely fast and reliable virtual storage infrastructures. By qualifying SANsymphony for Fujitsu ETERNUS and PRIMERGY systems, DataCore and Fujitsu assure a pre-tested highly-available platform for dynamic storage available on demand and optimized for cloud storage architectures.”

Additional links –
Fujitsu Press Release: Fujitsu Maximizes Flexibility of Cloud Storage Architectures with DataCore storage virtualization http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/

About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of ICT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 170,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$50 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/.

Fujitsu maximises flexibility of storage architectures with DataCore storage virtualisation

http://www.sns-uk.co.uk/news_full.php?id=15628
Fujitsu announces the validated integration of its datacentre storage and server systems with DataCore storage virtualisation software, helping to minimise the risks for enterprises switching to virtualised storage pool architectures. The pre-tested and qualified solution with Fujitsu ETERNUS and PRIMERGY with DataCore SANsymphony is available immediately.

The tighter integration of Fujitsu ETERNUS DX disk storage systems and PRIMERGY X86 tower, blade and rack servers with DataCore’s storage virtualisation software offers enterprises a powerful storage solution that is flexible and easy-to-manage. The reliable and secure disk storage systems integrate well with host operating systems, multi-vendor servers, network infrastructures and back-up solutions.

To minimise the potential risks of permanent data loss, Fujitsu’s ETERNUS DX disk storage systems already provide many redundant components. DataCore adds an independent storage virtualisation layer to further optimise the availability of storage. It ensures an uninterruptible operation of storage systems in case a failover is necessary. DataCore SANsymphony™ provides the ability to mirror data over distances between storage systems with active/active access.

Adding the DataCore virtualisation layer gives customers the ability to scale multiple independent ETERNUS DX systems. The advantage is that the ETERNUS DX can act as one global storage pool that can be expanded virtually to any size far beyond the capacity of each single storage unit. Thanks to Fujitsu and DataCore, customers can now distribute data in their storage infrastructure in real-time, therefore removing any Single Point of Failure, and making it possible to move the data to every storage device in flexible storage pool architecture in real-time for highest availability.

Sean Haffey, product marketing manager Unix and Storage at Fujitsu UK & Ireland, says: “By combining our server and storage solutions with DataCore software, customers benefit from storage consolidation in various usage scenarios. We deliver complete storage pool architectures customised to our customers’ ever-changing needs - via a single source.”

Christian Hagen, vice president EMEA & Americas at DataCore Software said: “Combined Fujitsu and DataCore solutions enable joint customers to easily build powerful, extremely fast and reliable virtual storage infrastructures. By qualifying SANsymphony for Fujitsu ETERNUS and PRIMERGY systems, DataCore and Fujitsu assure a pre-tested environment for dynamic storage on demand concepts optimised for storage pool architectures. This solution is built on our long term success with Fujitsu based installations in the field. It now opens up the channel for Fujitsu resellers and customers to benefit from this combined qualified infrastructure working perfectly together.”

Fujitsu and DataCore Software Partner for Virtualized Storage

eWeek Storage Report: Fujitsu, DataCore Partner for Virtualized Storage
One could say that Fujitsu as a company is a bit cautious about change and in choosing its partners. But that would be a massive understatement.

Being cautious in international business is undoubtedly a very good thing. Note that Fujitsu is one of the world's true IT powerhouses.

However, good quality, second-generation storage virtualization has been available and used in production by many enterprises for more than four years. Companies like Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, NetApp and a slew of others already have snapped up their own such suppliers and incorporated their wares into their catalogs.

Thus it is indeed news that Fujitsu now has a storage virtualization software partner. On Sept. 9 it was announced that Fujitsu has validated DataCore storage virtualization software to run on its storage arrays and servers.

Thus, the two will produce high-end Fujitsu Eternus and Primergy systems featuring DataCore SANsymphony and make them available immediately through local channel partners.

DataCore said the combination enables easy real-time provisioning of storage within cloud infrastructures. DataCore's secret sauce also adds high availability, making it possible to move data and virtual machines as needed, where needed in a cloud storage architecture.

The new systems will at first become available this fall in Europe -- Austria, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom....

Latest Videos on DataCore Storage Virtualization Software - Why I use DataCore: Host.net; DataCore CEO at VMworld

Why I use DataCore: Host.net:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIKsiEgUbhw

DataCore CEO Talks Virtualization at VMworld

http://www.siliconangle.tv/video/storage-tiering-and-flash-performance-george-teixeira-talks-virtualization-tiered-storage-and-/

VMworld 2010: DataCore Showcases Why Its Storage Virtualization and Stretch High-Availability Software Eliminates Business Outages that Jeopardize Cloud Computing

At VMworld 2010 being held in San Francisco at the Moscone Center this week, DataCore is showcasing how fundamental software-based storage virtualization is to cloud computing.


The Mirazon Group's Chief Technical Architect Barry Martin states:


"Cloud computing platforms demand unprecedented uptime due to server and storage consolidation. DataCore's high-availability approach provides zero downtime. This is a tremendous advantage."

Storage Virtualization and Stretch HA Software for Non-stop Clouds

DataCore is blazing a trail by developing storage virtualization software that is a game-changer in terms of how resellers, solution providers as well as companies considering virtualization deployments manage and deploy virtualization projects and Clouds. The game-changer is that by deploying DataCore in a stretch high-availability (HA) configuration, DataCore delivers fault-tolerance that virtually eliminates storage-related outages that jeopardize business continuity and plague virtualization and consolidation initiatives.

"The DataCore Software stretch high-availability solution delivers seamless, enterprise-class business continuity, data resiliency, and high performance at an affordable price tag," states Aaron Schneider, principal and co-founder, Helixstorm, Inc. "Your applications, virtual servers and virtual desktops and VM migrations continue to run non-stop despite back-end storage changes, failures or reconfigurations. Bottom-line, you get a true high-availability, shared storage solution that automatically protects your data and your virtual machines right out-of-the box just by deploying the virtual storage software in two locations."

DataCore in the Cloud: Achieve the Highest Degree of Availability, Flexibility and Openness for Your Storage
Host.net knows intuitively that storage virtualization software is priority one. "Any cloud computing platform, just like any virtualization deployment, needs to have portable software as its building blocks," notes Jeffrey Slapp, vice president of virtualization services, Host.net. "We chose DataCore in the core design of our virtual private data center (vPDC) platform alongside VMware and Cisco because it delivers the very best storage virtualization component."

DataCore storage virtualization software is virtualizing the storage aspect of an all-virtual private data center (vPDC) platform developed by Host.net. Host.net delivers private cloud computing services for companies ranging from SMEs to large enterprises, utilizing a true software-based approach for the greatest flexibility. Check out the Case study here: Host.Net Case Study on Why Host.net Chose DataCore?


Contain Costs, Avoid Risks, Boost Productivity and Extend the Life of IT Investments with DataCore Software
Even though server and desktop virtualization and consolidation have garnered much of the virtualization press to date, now the real focus of concern is turning from how to virtualize and consolidate servers and desktops to how can we do more to mitigate the risk that results from consolidation. The key concerns being, "How do I insulate my business applications from storage related failures and disruptions that can severely impact virtual machine images and data that are key to running the business?" and "How good is my high-availability, disaster recovery and shared storage solutions?"

DataCore addresses these concerns with proven software deployed in thousands of customer sites around the world. DataCore's software virtualizes disks across pools of tiered storage devices enabling users to provision, share, reconfigure, migrate, replicate, expand or upgrade without slowdowns or downtime. Simply put, DataCore:

+Complements your storage and makes it more reliable, faster and better.

+Works across unlike & incompatible storage devices.

+Eliminates storage-related disruptions, bottlenecks and funding roadblocks that jeopardize virtualization and cloud deployments.

Visit DataCore Customers and Partners Onsite at VMworld 2010 [Booth #1607]
Numerous DataCore customers, including Host.net and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, who have deployed DataCore along with top DataCore solution providers will be onsite at DataCore's VMworld booth [#1607] and are available and standing by to answer questions, highlight best practices and explain the DataCore difference. DataCore solution providers and partners onsite include Grove Networks, HelixStorm, Red Level Networks, Sanity Solutions, The Mirazon Group and DataCore's value-add distributor Lifeboat Distribution.

DataCore partner Andy Judge, founder and CEO of Miami-based Grove Networks, encapsulates the value DataCore brings as follows, "DataCore storage virtualization software gives our clients cost savings and flexibility that is not achievable with storage hardware alone. It takes hardware to a higher level - serving as a hardware and productivity 'enhancer' that pays dividends over the short and long term."

VMworld 2010: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Deploys DataCore Software in a Stretch, High-Availability Configuration with VMware to Ensure Uptime and Business Continuity

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) www.ashp.org/ has implemented a new stretch cluster and stretch high-availability (HA) storage configuration based on DataCore storage virtualization software and VMware server virtualization software to ensure uptime and business continuity. This new, stretch, dual-node configuration was implemented by DataCore partner Helixstorm, Inc. and together, DataCore and VMware form an HA configuration that spans floors – serving as an industrial-strength production system with fault-tolerance.

The goal is to transition all of ASHP’s data onto the newly configured, fault-tolerant, virtualized environment. “I am now a believer in the software-based approach to high-availability and storage virtualization,” states Jack Spencer, vice president of operations and CIO at American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. “It was not intuitive until I actually saw it. But now that I have, I am no longer skeptical. Going forward, I will put the bulk of all the money earmarked for network storage into expanding the DataCore configuration as well as building in remote disaster recovery.”

Enterprise Scalability, Seamless Business Continuity, Data Resiliency and High Performance That Supports the ASHP Membership
ASHP has 35,000 individual members. The staff at ASHP itself comprises 210 people. All benefit from the uptime the virtualized environment provides, with DataCore at the heart of it all. “The DataCore Software stretch HA solution delivers enterprise scalability, seamless business continuity, data resiliency, and high performance for a cost-effective price tag when comparing it to traditional storage arrays,” states Aaron Schneider, principal and co-founder, Helixstorm, Inc. “The best part about it is that if ASHP lost a floor to power or critical disaster, the users would not experience an outage because of seamless I/O failover to the surviving node. You get high availability right out of the box just by deploying the virtual storage software in two locations.”

The New HA Configuration: DataCore + VMware Form an Industrial-Strength Production System with Fault-Tolerance
The two HA systems are stretched across two floors at ASHP using synchronous mirroring – thereby providing data redundancy. In total, the data pool – near-line and on-line – comprises sixty (60) terabytes at ASHP. Because ASHP publishes 500+ different publications, storage has always been a big requirement. Three years ago, ASHP became interested in the flexibility, ease-of-use, centralized management and reduced costs that DataCore’s software-based approach to managing and virtualizing their storage assets afforded. DataCore was not, however, ASHP’s first step into virtualization. Prior to DataCore, VMware was deployed at ASHP and the virtual machine (VM) farm has grown four-fold over five years.

“We designed and implemented a true highly available SAN solution,” states Eric Henry, CTO and co-founder, Helixstorm, Inc. “It’s a shared nothing environment, which means the disks do not share a backplane with the controllers like traditional arrays. ASHP has eliminated all single points of failure between the application servers and the storage controllers along with increasing the data resiliency by ‘stretching’ the SAN between two floors via redundant fiber channel connections for synchronous mirroring. You just can’t get any better business continuity than that!”

A Mission-Critical Solution and Configuration
Spencer extols the value-added utilities and features of SANmelody as well as its ease of use – chiefly its simplicity in terms of set-up and maintenance. “Trying to carve out a LUN on a big SAN is a true hassle,” explains Spencer. “Then trying to maintain and keep track of the different LUNs – just the maintenance of the configuration – is very complicated. Software-based SANmelody makes it simple. It is elegantly straightforward and simple in terms of removing labor-intensive aspects of SAN maintenance.”

VMworld 2010 Photos - DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Makes Clouds Happy!

Stop by and Visit DataCore Booth 1607 at VMworld - DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Makes Clouds Happy.

We look forward to seeing you at VMworld 2010.

Always Stays Up   -  Prevent storage-related disruptions. Keep your clouds running with DataCore's non-disruptive high-availability software.
Never Tied Down - Works across incompatible storage devices. Agile and not tied to specific storage arrays, vendors or devices which 'come and go' over time.
Highly Stretchable - Spans buildings and locations for 'Stretch HA'  high-availability and recovery for VMs and data.
Lightning fast  - Advanced Caching enables electronic memory speeds to accelerate your workloads and overcome I/O bottlenecks that impact virtual server and virtual desktop performance.

If you are attending VMworld and will be available on Sunday evening, please contact your local DataCore contact if you are available to attend the DataCore VMworld Welcome Reception at the Infusion Lounge in San Francisco from 7:00-10:00 PM.

DataCore virtualizes FusionIO SSDs, HP storage arrays into SAN for NIEDAX GROUP

DataCore Case Study
DataCore Software has enabled the NIEDAX GROUP to combine traditional storage arrays, already installed, with new high-speed Solid State Disks (SSDs) to create a Storage Area Network (SAN) to meet their growing data center needs. DataCore virtualization software, combined with FusionIO NAND flash memory SSD technology, has achieved a new level of performance, high availability and energy efficiency, running in production at 100,000 IOPS and 600 MB/s (megabytes-per-second) of throughput, while consuming 15 Watts of energy versus 4000 Watts with hard disks alone.

The NIEDAX GROUP, an electrical installation manufacturer, needed to upgrade its systems to meet the growing demands of its ERP system which is based on Microsoft Dynamics. In addition they wanted to migrate their base of over 40 VMware VMs onto a more reliable SAN infrastructure. The major requirement, however, driven by the ERP requirements was for a new SAN storage solution that could deliver higher performance, capacity and availability than the existing hardware SAN.

NIEDAX utilized a consultancy firm to calculate and access its data requirements and found out that if it continued to use a traditional hardware SAN it would need to add and invest in at least another two storage systems, each with a minimum of 40 Fibre Channel disk drives, to achieve the required performance and high availability. This would be a significant investment and add to the ongoing space and energy costs – so alternatives were sought.

Having seen the value of using VMware for servers, NIEDAX wanted to know if there was virtualization solution that could do the same for their SAN storage. Additionally, it also had to meet the ERP performance requirements that were critical.

The company understood the value of virtualization – having evaluated the use of VMware ESX to virtualize a number of machines and realizing the benefits of going green by reducing power consumption and heating costs with servers. So, NIEDAX asked what they could do similarly for their storage. DataCore partner S&L Netzwerktechnik GmbH evaluated the requirements and then suggested and developed an alternative plan that could build on the company’s existing investment and reduce their ongoing costs.

The solution consisted of DataCore SANmelody 3.0 software providing virtualization, performance to accelerate caching software and high-availability mirroring across the pool of storage arrays and SSDs, integration of existing HP EVA Storage Array, integration and additional disks to the HP MSA Storage Arrays, and the addition of high-speed FusionIO SSDs with NAND flash memory to boost performance and lower overall energy requirements.

The DataCore SANmelody 3.0 virtualization software runs on standard servers and enables cost-effective high availability through synchronous mirroring to occur between the heterogeneous mix of SAN hardware. The DataCore solution facilitated NIEDAX GROUP using its existing hardware in combination with the required expansion and new SSDs in order to obtain higher performance and to grow capacity. In a similar manner to what VMware had done for their servers, DataCore virtualized and made their storage hardware more efficient and cost-effective.

“We are happy with our DataCore investment and we are benefiting from the many functional and financial benefits of putting it in use,” stated Oliver Bauer, Team Leader Administration / IT at NIEDAX GROUP. “The SAN now enables flexibility in administration, ease of expansion and the ability to dynamically allocate storage where and when we need it. DataCore caching accelerates overall performance and delivers a much higher data throughput. The software approach ensures the ease of transfer and the ability to use SAN-wide features on different hardware arrays and devices. Thus it is a very cost-effective way to mirror data. For our demanding ERP application, the fact that we could run FusionIO Solid State Disks under the DataCore virtualization and management solution was critical. We gained tremendous performance from adding FusionIO SSDs and overall we reduce energy and cooling costs.”

In terms of background, the demanding databases that support ERP systems, especially in manufacturing applications such as at the NIEDAX GROUP, often do not consume very large amounts of storage. Instead, however, they do require extremely high performance. With the Fusion IO NAND SSD flash memory technology in place, the NIEDAX GROUP was able to achieve 100,000 IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second) and rates of 600 MB/s with only 15 Watt power consumption, when running in production. By comparison, if they had used conventional Fibre Channel storage disks alone to achieve these levels of performance, they would have consumed somewhere around 4,000 Watts.

"With the implementation of DataCore‘s virtualization storage software we were able to meet all of the customers technical requirements,” said Alwin Kohl, consultant at S&L Netzwerktechnik GmbH. “In addition, with the combination of DataCore’s virtualization software and FusionIO‘s SSD NAND flash memory we were able to protect NIEDAX’s current investments in their SAN and extend it – making it green and significantly reducing long-term costs for our customer.”

Saginaw Intermediate School District Deploys a Flexible, Virtualized Cloud Infrastructure Using DataCore and VMware

DataCore Software announced that Saginaw Intermediate School District (ISD) has replaced a legacy SAN and embraced virtualization in its centralized data center built on DataCore, VMware and Xiotech. Moreover, Saginaw ISD’s VMware- DataCore-based cloud for servers and storage serves as both a centralized data center and a hosting service for the majority of school districts in the county.
Download the Case Study on Saginaw VMware and DataCore Cloud Computing

The implementation at Saginaw ISD is one that incorporates DataCore for storage virtualization, VMware for server virtualization, and Xiotech as the hardware platform providing the actual storage. DataCore’s SANmelody storage virtualization software powers two SANs that comprise DataCore software and Xiotech servers at two separate data centers, five miles apart, which are configured to mirror to each other. The data pool consists of 10 TBs on each end of the remote configuration.

"Our goal was to virtualize everything and have that supported by storage," states Jeff Johnson, Director of Technical Services, Saginaw Intermediate School District.

Saginaw ISD has deployed seven VMware ESX boxes in the VMware farm - all running on HP servers. These hosts service 35-40 VMs, which span everything from a utility machine running Windows XP - to five SQL servers. For replication purposes, the mirrored site has three ESX boxes that also make up the VMware cloud between the two sites. DataCore is at the heart of the virtualized infrastructure, powering the VMware cloud in Saginaw ISD’s virtual, private data center.
http://vmblog.com/archive/2010/07/27/saginaw-intermediate-school-district-deploys-a-flexible-virtualized-cloud-infrastructure-using-datacore-vmware-and-xiotech.aspx

Total Wine Taps DataCore Software to Virtualise Storage. Challenge: Leveraging an Existing EMC SAN & Microsoft Hyper-V

http://www.it-director.com/business/change/news_release.php?rel=19117
Challenge: Leveraging an Existing EMC SAN & Microsoft Hyper-V:
Total Wine has seen enormous success in virtualizing the EMC storage area network (SAN) that was already deployed in its data center with DataCore storage virtualisation software. The impetus for bringing DataCore in to virtualise and manage the SAN was straightforward the SAN was running out of capacity and performance. "It got to the point where performance became an issue; we were out of disk space and could not add more disk array enclosures, unless we bought a new SAN," notes Todd Slan, director of technology, Total Wine. "So, the idea of a storage virtualisation solution like DataCore that enabled us to enhance our existing SAN solution and, at the same time, accelerate performance was the path we started down."

Total Wine evaluated adding to the EMC SAN or going with other storage hardware solutions such as LeftHand Networks, EqualLogic, as well as NetApp. However, in his role as Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Council for Microsoft, which serves as the executive advisory board, where he sits on the International Board, Slan was swayed to DataCore by another council member, who was a DataCore customer as well as partner. "DataCore and Microsoft partner The Asbury Group Integrated Technologies brought me into their data center and showed me how they solved an 80 terabyte problem with storage virtualization software from DataCore," adds Slan. "That, and the idea of not having to rip and replace our existing investment in storage devices, was enough to sell us on DataCore as the right solution for us as well."

According to David Herr, chief technology and security officer, The Asbury Group Integrated Technologies, "Virtual servers and desktops depend heavily on shared disks. Without them, system administrators cannot migrate virtual machines, fail-over workloads or start up sessions on a completely different desktop. That is where DataCore comes in."

Meeting Business Objectives Accommodating Growth and Meeting Performance Expectations:

The data pool that is now managed by DataCore totals 10 TBs. In terms of the user community, the 10 TBs are divided between 230 users at Total Wines Corporate Headquarters as well as employees working at the retail stores. For the corporate users, DataCore is providing the range of data, databases and servers you would expect to be relied on heavily in an office environment flat files, databases, Exchange, etc. For those working in the stores, the core line-of-business application that runs Total Wines entire business operations "back-ends" to a SQL database that sits on the DataCore SAN.

"For our stores we had two issues," explains Slan. "One was a growth issue. We took a database application that was serving 200 users in the corporate office and extended that to the field bringing an additional 1,500 users under that umbrella. A conventional SAN, not using virtualization, has pretty serious physical size limits and when you hit them, you hit them hard. DataCore solved this problem and we did not have to buy more hardware, re-provision disks or resize LUNs. Apart from the growth issue was the performance one. The performance issues associated with having 1,000 users hit a database as opposed to 200 are significantly different. We had to have a solution that enabled us to crank up the performance of those databases. DataCore virtualisation has delivered for us on the performance front as well."

Total Wine needed a way to grow, simultaneously, in terms of the size of the user community it supported, and in terms of performance. According to Slan, DataCore has given his team the best way to do this as well as the most cost-effective one. "With DataCore we are not wasting space as we had done in conventional SAN models," he explains. "That is what we had relied on before and we were essentially wasting fifty percent of our disk space."

One of the things Slan and his team really love about the storage virtualisation solution from DataCore is that it empowers them with flexibility. Today Total Wine has a mix of storage under management fiber channel, direct-attached and iSCSI. "DataCore does not tie us into any one storage model," Slan notes. "I don't need to buy fiber channel storage for everything, and DataCore accommodates that. I can buy lower cost storage. I can hang direct-attached SAS units off the back of the DataCore SAN and I do not have to pay the fiber channel costs because I dont need it."

The Total Virtualisation Environment Virtual Storage for Hyper-V
Total Wine has a significant investment in Microsoft Hyper-V for virtual servers and has deployed Hyper-V exclusively as its virtual server of choice. Total Wines data center in Maryland is approximately 50% virtualised. Currently, eight major systems or one-third of the virtual machines (VMs) in the virtualised infrastructure are now running on DataCore to virtualise and accelerate their storage. This will grow substantially in the next phase of the virtualisation deployment.

Initially, Total Wine deployed DataCore simply to achieve the inherent benefits of virtualisation for its EMC SAN, including better performance via DataCores mega caching functionality and increased capacity through its infrastructure-wide thin-provisioning technology. Slan and his team at Total Wine are now deploying a second DataCore license, to ensure high-availability and improve uptime. This summer, Total Wines DataCore virtualised-powered storage infrastructure will be fully redundant, whereby two mirrored SANs will safeguard the data guaranteeing uptime and fault-tolerance. This will also lay the groundwork for full disaster recovery (if needed), whereby at a later stage a third DataCore SAN can be added in a remote location and connected via remote or asynchronous replication.

Slan emphasizes that, in the retail world, sales margins are thin and resource utilization is crucial. "If we are under-utilizing our resources, then, in a sense, it is wasted money. In terms of resource utilization, we can get over 80% utilization of our storage investment with DataCore. Make no mistake about it the attraction to DataCore for us was that it is not a hardware device-based SAN solution. The software-based approach of DataCore was absolutely key for us. Hardware is hardware. The bottom-line for us is that DataCore allows us to do a lot of the things we already knew were possible in the virtualisation world, but with storage."

To access the Total Wine & More Case Study on implementing DataCore, EMC and Hyper-V, please go to: www.datacore.com/totalwine  .

About Total Wine & More
Total Wine & More is the largest independent fine wine retailer in the country and is the only major fine wine company to operate in multiple states. As the preeminent fine wine store in each of its markets, Total Wine & More is the independent retailer of fine wine in the United States. For more, visit http://www.totalwine.com/ .

Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2010: Photos of the DataCore Booth - Is that Steve Ballmer?

DataCore is exhibiting this week at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference – running July 11-15 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. DataCore is located in Booth 739 at Microsoft WPC. For more, go to http://digitalwpc.com/ .

If you are attending the conference, please stop by and see how DataCore’s software-based virtualization solutions empower storage and serve as the third dimension to virtualization.

...and yes that is Steve Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft along with Carlos Carreras from DataCore.

Virtualization Partners See DataCore Software as Pivotal to an Overall Virtualization Strategy

J4 Systems realizes importance of DataCore’s virtualization approach
http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8864:j4-systems-realizes-importance-of-datacores-virtualization-approach&catid=229:virtualization&Itemid=2701180

J4 Systems Inc., is a good example of a virtualization oriented solution provider that has realized the importance of virtualizating storage solutions along with desktops and servers. New J4 Systems customers that have deployed DataCore to virtualize storage resources include Admail West, Antonini Enterprises LLC, California Bankers, Cross Petroleum, Grafil Inc., Porter Scott, Resource Capital Inc., Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, and Tesco Controls Inc., among others.

"DataCore has helped tremendously in empowering us with what customers need in order to make their virtualization projects successful," states Tiffany Sequeira, Chief Operating Officer, J4 Systems. "The marketplace at large is recognizing that virtualization projects are indeed three-dimensional and that storage is as vital as the other dimensions, if not more so. DataCore takes storage to the next level, protects existing storage investments and delivers genuine value to users by boosting productivity, utilization and performance through device independent software that safeguards their business from costly disruptions due to storage failures."

DataCore develops software-based solutions that virtualize storage. Virtual servers and desktops depend on shared disks. Without them, system administrators cannot migrate virtual machines, fail-over workloads or start up sessions on a completely different desktop. DataCore virtualization solutions enable system and network administrators to provision, share, reconfigure, migrate, replicate, expand and upgrade storage without slowdowns or downtime.

"We rely on DataCore software to pool our existing storage assets into a highly available, shared storage configuration," states Steve Bradley, Network Administrator, Rocklin Unified School District. "We selected DataCore because we saw the value and the power of virtualizing across all makes and models of storage devices in a manner that is cost effective, device independent and puts to use equipment already in place."

According to Chris Whitaker, IT Manager, Ahtna Government Services Corporation, "What won the day was the fact that DataCore offers a software-based, device-independent solution whereby we get infrastructure-wide functionality that runs across unlike and incompatible devices, without slowdowns or downtime. This rich set of advanced virtualization services from DataCore delivers the highest availability and best use of resources at the most favorable cost. DataCore virtualization technology hits on all cylinders for us. And their customer support is just exemplary."

In addition to Rocklin Unified School District and Ahtna Government Services Corp., other J4 Systems customers that benefited form cost-savings, flexibility, productivity and risk mitigation include American Building Supply, AWI Management Corp., Borges Architectural Group, California School Employees Association, Chelsio Communications, Citizens Bank of Northern California, City of Elk Grove Police Department, Composite Engineering Inc., Corn Products International, County Medical Services Program, Delta Blood Bank, Document Fulfillment Services, Ecorp Consulting Inc., Hose & Fittings ETC., Loomis Union Unified School District, PFU Systems Inc., Qualys Inc., Risse Mechanical, Robbjack Corp., Schuering Zimmerman & Doyle LLP, Stanislaus Union School District, Stockton East Water District, The CBM Group, Therapeutic Research, Trans Cal Insurance Services, Visionapp, and more.

"We find that DataCore virtualization software has become a very mission-critical part of the way we shape the long-term IT plans of our customers," notes Sequeira. "Yes a lot of customers are talking about virtualization. But it is how they are applying virtualization that is really relevant. Initially, our customers are typically using DataCore to attain high-availability. Then, they add a third DataCore-powered SAN to ensure disaster recovery. The bottom-line is that DataCore storage virtualization software enables virtualization initiatives to become reality for our customer base. And the reason for this is because DataCore’s solutions provide the high-availability required to keep businesses running out-of-the-box as well as a future path whereby DataCore makes disaster recovery both possible and economically viable."

Wimbledon 2010: The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club Takes Advantage of DataCore Virtualization for Flexible Storage Provisioning and Disaster Recovery

“With DataCore’s SANsymphony solution running effectively, we have moved the Club’s infrastructure into the next layer of availability and flexibility. It really has provided a cost-effective alternative that added needed flexibility to our traditional hardware approach.” -Andrew Jones, IT Infrastructure & Security Analyst at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

DataCore Software has announced that the prestigious All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, host of the world’s most famous tennis tournament, Wimbledon, is using DataCore’s SANsymphony as its storage backbone.

As one of the world’s top sporting events, Wimbledon attracts the World’s top tennis stars, along with tens of thousands of spectators and millions of viewers via television and the Internet. As such, you would expect there is a complex IT and support infrastructure that supports an IT population that swells from 200 to 6,000 users across a three-week period.

Running everything to do with IT security and data integrity is Andrew Jones, IT Infrastructure & Security Analyst at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, who is one of seven from the IT Department responsible for the platforms and infrastructure that ensure the smooth running of critical operations at the Club.

Jones noted, “Our initial requirement was to reduce the costs of deploying and running our CCTV system. The system had a very high storage requirement – between 16-20 TBs as a monthly load which we then intended to overwrite – and this was even at a heavily compressed rate.” Footage has also increased dramatically (for instance the new state-of-the-art Centre Court moving roof contains four cameras provide a birds-eye view on Centre Court proceedings). Andrew recognized that pools of data this large needed to be linked into the existing storage area network (SAN), but also recognized that this integration would provide management headaches and significant strain on the present SAN backbone of an IBM Fibre Channel SAN Storage 4300 solution. The IBM SAN was effective and provided great data mirroring, facilitating the VMware ESX server virtualization, but the Club realized that to accommodate this level of generated data, it required a cost-effective, flexible storage solution for CCTV that would have otherwise entailed the purchase of numerous additional trays of disks.

DataCore’s SANsymphony solution was identified as being able to address the Club’s present and future needs; including critically the mammoth expansion on the network usage throughout the run-up, duration and immediately following the Championship. Previously the distinct peaks throughout June and July each year had to be facilitated by additional hardware, which then was effectively unused for the remainder of the year. In addition, the Club took the opportunity to tie-in an effective Disaster Recovery solution (including the implementation of a full-scale, offsite DR emergency center).

The DataCore proposal showed a staggering £15,000 immediate capital savings outlay compared to the alternative of allocating more disks to cope with demand. With such compelling financial and business benefits, the business case was easy to justify to the Board.

The flexibility of the proposal prompted the Club to place an order for three SANsymphony nodes in late 2008, which run on IBM servers and complement IBM standard DS3400 storage arrays. Two were housed in the separate Wimbledon data centers in a mirrored environment for failover purposes and it was proposed that the third would be housed at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton for full DR purposes.

One of the first noted effects of SANsymphony was the ease of administration. Previously the team had to manage five different interfaces at any one time, controlling everything from switches and storage arrays – to the iSCSI/FC management interfaces. With SANsymphony, Andrew noted, “Everything is now presented to the DataCore virtualization servers, which through a drag and drop interface control all aspects of the SAN. From an administration perspective there is a lot less to monitor, control and manage.”

Even without the full offsite DR plan being implemented, the Club has benefited from SANsymphony’s automatic failover configuration. Ongoing building works around Centre Court at the Club entailed the brief loss of fibre connectivity. The resultant effect on the SAN was negligible. SANsymphony’s auto-failover kicked in, simply switching the servers to the mirrored site and causing no loss of data or applications.

Full Scale DR in progress
The third SANsymphony server has been allocated to the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, some three miles away. This way, in the event of a dramatic loss of functionality (hosting the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament means that security at the Club is treated very seriously), the third SANsymphony can provide asynchronous mirroring and snapshotting. This means that almost instantly – in a full scale disaster – the entire system can be back up and running with only a five minute lag in data availability.

Additional growth is now easy to provide
SANsymphony’s scalable approach provides additional reassurance and room to grow. Adding more storage is now a question of simply purchasing additional licenses. Complex provisioning and rezoning of disks is a thing of the past. Moreover, as data storage grows and retained digital image sizes increase, the team is now confident that in the future they can instantly serve back large files such as video restore.

Andrew summarizes, “With DataCore’s SANsymphony solution running effectively, we have moved the Club’s infrastructure into the next layer of availability and flexibility. It really has provided a cost-effective alternative that added needed flexibility to our traditional hardware approach.”

DataCore Software Wins 2010 Storage Award for "Virtualization Product of the Year"

DataCore Software Wins 2010 Storage Award for "Virtualization Product of the Year" http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=15089

DataCore Software, a leading provider of storage virtualization software, has once again scooped one of the UK’s top storage awards by winning the Virtualization Product of the Year Award at the prestigious 2010 Storage Awards held last week at the Tower Hotel in London.

Keith Joseph, Regional Manager, Northern Europe, DataCore Software, commented, “What DataCore’s SANmelody provides is an agile, virtual storage infrastructure that aligns with the other two key dimensions of virtualization. DataCore does for storage what VMware, Microsoft and Citrix do for servers and desktops. This is the first time this category has been represented at the awards and it illustrates just how important the software storage aspect is to server and desktop virtualization.”

Virtualization projects are 3-dimensional
Servers and desktops deserve much attention, but disks represent a disproportionately large share of recurring capital expenditures and a constant source of upheaval. By virtualizing disks across pools of tiered storage devices, DataCore software overcomes incompatibilities among different generations, models and manufacturers to maximize their combined value. As importantly, it eliminates storage-related disruptions, bottlenecks and funding roadblocks that jeopardize server and desktop virtualization projects. DataCore lets you provision, share, reconfigure, migrate, replicate, expand and upgrade storage without slowdowns or downtime. This helps contain costs, avoid risks, boost productivity and extend the life of IT investments.

In terms of how SANmelody delivers value, the Virtualization Product of the Year Award signifies the readers’ appreciation of how it easily and cost-effectively it converts physical Intel/AMD servers or virtual machines (VMs) into fully-capable, virtualization servers that are able to optimize, protect and manage storage over existing networks to fulfill the needs of application servers.

The Storage Awards were established in 2004 to recognize best-in-breed, easy to use solutions that make the working lives of storage and virtualization managers easier and more effective.
http://www.it-director.com/enterprise/technology/news_release.php?rel=18517

DataCore Storage Virtualization and Citrix Xen

For more details: DataCore Storage Virtualization and Citrix Xen

'The virtual infrastructure that encompasses both server and storage virtualization has made my life easier for provisioning new servers and adding disk space,' comments Jeremy Hines, Manager of IS, Evans Fruit Company. 'And it is the total virtualized environment, spanning Citrix Xen and SANmelody that makes this possible.'

"Three Xen virtual hosts, meaning three physical servers, run all of the virtual machines. Two DataCore SANs running on SUN x4250s are physically separated, albeit in the same building, connected to each other via Ethernet. According to the IT staff, SANmelody makes it much easier to add storage to a machine, which is done by carving a new LUN (logical unit number) and then attaching it to the machine. Doing so immediately provides administrators with what amounts to a new hard drive, the size of which is easily increased. Notes Hines, 'You carve out a new LUN, copy the data, and then drop the old LUN. It is pretty straightforward. We really like that in terms of ease-of-use.'"

Full story: http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=14965

Photos from Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software, Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers

Customers showcased using both DataCore and Microsoft in virtualization infrastructures includes health network Continuum Health Partners (www.datacore.com/continuum ), floral distributor Northwest Wholesale Florists (www.datacore.com/NWF ), and law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams (www.datacore.com/mcnamee ). These companies are but a small sample of the tens of thousands of organizations worldwide using DataCore virtualization solutions.

For more info: Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010: DataCore Virtualization Software Takes Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Cluster Servers to the 3rd Dimension