Wednesday 17 September 2014

Join DataCore in one of Melbourne's rooftops for a drink, chat and bite to eat!

We would like to invite you to join us for an after-work evening of drinks and a bite to eat, in the Tuscan Rooftop Wine Garden in Melbourne’s CBD, on 25th September 2014.

This is your time to find out why organisations around the globe are turning to DataCore for their storage.

This informal event is being hosted by DataCore Software with the aim of informing you of DataCore’s unique value proposition and how using DataCore will vastly improve your growing storage challenges.



We are looking forward to enjoying an evening of delicious Italian delicacies and a few drinks with you. We will discuss your storage challenges and you will get the opportunity to find out why organisations around the globe, are turning to DataCore for their storage.

DataCore’s after-work evening is an exclusive opportunity to relax with some of your colleagues, enjoy delicious food and a drink or two, while engaging with the DataCore team on Software-defined Storage in Action.

We ask you to please register your attendance to our evening event and we look forward to seeing you on the 25th September 2014. If you would like to bring along a colleague(s) please feel free to forward the register link onto them and ensure they register their own details.

If you would like to find out more about this event please email us at: ANZinfo@datacore.com

Tuesday 16 September 2014

DataCore and CommVault Partner to address Software-Defined Storage Momentum and Redefine Data Protection and Recovery

SANsymphony-™V is the first and only software-defined storage architecture to be fully integrated with CommVault’s Simpana® IntelliSnap® snapshot management technology. Through the combination of their advanced storage software, DataCore and CommVault are now able to deliver industry-leading data protection and recovery operations for today’s dynamic workloads to customers around the world.
CommVault's IntelliSnap technology ensures that IT organisations, including application, virtualisation and storage managers, can perform rapid, granular and consistent recovery of vital VMware and Microsoft Exchange, SQL, SharePoint and file data through federated search across indexed snapshots. CommVault continues to expand this growing ecosystem by enabling software and disk array vendors to integrate their snapshots with IntelliSnap technology through the IntelliSnap Connect Program.
“Today’s dynamic application workloads require a different type of thinking as data protection needs to be looked at from end to end and centered around mitigating the impact to the business,” said George Teixeira, president and CEO at DataCore. “As a result of our partnership with CommVault, organisations can now leverage the benefits of software-defined storage to accelerate data protection and recovery operations while making hardware maintenance, data migrations and hardware refreshes easier.”
With the integration of SANsymphony-V and Simpana IntelliSnap technology, organisations can:


  • Virtualise and pool access to any type of storage regardless of vendor model or brand, enabling companies to maximise their existing storage investments and boost application performance


  • Automate the creation of indexed, application-aware snapshot copies across enterprise-wide, multi-vendor storage environments


  • Simplify deployment and orchestrate recovery across all snapshots, backup and archive copies, while delivering storage specific reporting and managing replication


  • Minimise downtime with application-aware, point-in-time recovery of Microsoft Exchange Server, SharePoint, SQL, VMware, Hyper-V and other business critical applications


  • Reduce primary storage costs with automated snapshot backup to open systems, disk, tape or even the cloud for cost-effective retention
  • “CommVault is committed to working with partners who share a similar vision in helping increase efficiencies and reducing costs in today’s storage environments, while at the same time ensuring data protection and recovery remain top of mind,” said Jeff Echols, senior director of product and solutions marketing at CommVault. “As the software-defined storage market continues to grow, organisations will need data protection and recovery solutions in place that work across multiple-vendors in the same architecture – and we have achieved this through our partnership with DataCore.”

    Thunderbird School Of Global Management Meets Key VMware, Metro-Clustering And IT Cost Challenges With DataCore Software-Defined Storage

    “Due to the software-defined storage approach of DataCore’s SANsymphony-V, we are free to choose any hardware and no longer locked-in to a storage vendor, which gives us greater purchasing power," said Johan Reinalda, senior director network infrastructure and support services, Thunderbird School of Global Management. “This solution has allowed us to take a cost-effective approach when addressing our storage need. Additionally, functionality such as DataCore’s auto-tiering and self-tuning capabilities has led to performance increases in improving response times to VM within our VMware environment.”
    No Dependence on Expensive Hardware – with Software-Defined Storage from DataCore
    Thunderbird faced the IT challenge of being dependent on aging SAN controller infrastructure from NetApp, as well as various storage devices that were facing “end of life.” The school’s IT organization also sought to open up its purchasing options and free itself from this hardware and system vendor lock-in. Data storage growth rates were high and rising– so there was also the need to cost-effectively deal with the challenges of increasing growth and need for more capacity.
    The institution was looking for a way to avoid the high cost of upgrading under its existing NetApp solution, which was deployed as a metro-cluster. Thunderbird wanted to protect its existing investment and therefore still has NetApp running, however, IT has been able to modernize its overall storage and has moved all mission-critical storage to a software-based DataCore SANsymphony-V storage virtualization platform. In fact, the DataCore implementation cost was only a fraction of what Thunderbird would have spent for the upgrade path from the incumbent vendor.
    “We saved 60 percent on our storage upgrade – based on the quote from our original vendor, NetApp,” explained Reinalda. “We replaced all parts of the SAN – a total revamp, including disks, whereas the previous vendor option was to replace mostly the controllers. This was the overwhelming reason we went the DataCore route – that and no vendor lock-in for storage.”
    Realizing the Benefits & Eliminating Downtime: Defining Storage Its Own Way at Thunderbird
    In addition to a whopping 60 percent cost savings relative to the entrenched SAN vendor, the agility and flexibility the IT staff now has through DataCore – as far as scaling and expanding its infrastructure to best meet the organization’s needs – is now the norm at Thunderbird. For instance, system administrators can now add multi-vendor storage behind SANsymphony-V and have a single unified management interface.
    The IT department is reporting a three to four times performance increase in response times of the storage for its virtual machines (VMs). Thunderbird is not using high-end storage behind SANsymphony-V, but they are using DataCore’s auto-tiering feature along with solid state disks (SSDs). The institution has embraced a high availability (HA) implementation in which SANsymphony-V is synchronously mirrored across two different data centers that are metro-clustered across the campus and as a result the IT team can perform upgrades without any downtime to its VMware “internal could” environment.
    Reinalda emphasized that DataCore has ushered in a new day as far as making its storage infrastructure more resilient through storage that is software-defined. “The HA environment means better uptime. We have experienced no downtime in the six months we have been ‘live’ with SANsymphony-V,” he noted.
    A complete case study concerning the DataCore deployment at Thunderbird School of Global Management is available here: http://datacore.com/testimonials/thunderbird.

    Monday 15 September 2014

    CRN: DataCore taps ex-EMC man as regional sales boss

    Ian Heath joins after more than a decade at EMC.

    DataCore Software has appointed former EMC figure Ian Heath as its regional sales director for ANZ.
    Heath brings 25 years of IT industry experience to DataCore, including nearly 15 years with EMC, most recently as its ANZ alliances director.

    He said: "I am looking forward to bolstering customer relationships and resources to deliver valuable outcomes to both our customers and company."

    Meanwhile, DataCore has hired Orla Hanby as marketing manager for APAC, she was previously managing director at Media Corp International.

    The software-defined storage company announced these appointments following news they're extending their distribution network in the region.


    Read more: Here  

    Friday 12 September 2014

    Network Computing Product Review: DataCore Virtual SAN and SANsymphony-V Software-defined Storage Solutions

    Enterprise storage virtualisation offers many advantages over proprietary hardware solutions including cost effectiveness, no vendor lock-in and excellent scalability


    DataCore's SANsymphony-V software is a prime example and its latest version (10) delivers new Virtual SAN capabilities and features that make storage virtualisation really compelling.

    The new features focus sharply on the highest possible performance by using Flash and hard disk storage. Normally restricted to high-end enterprise disk arrays you can monitor disk activity, migrate hot data to higher performance storage and work across a range of vendor devices. Storage clustering is massively enhanced supporting up to 32 nodes and scaling to more than...

    Read the full Networking Computing Product Review: 


    DataCore Software appoints two new senior staff to their Australian and New Zealand operations

    Software-defined storage vendor, DataCore Software, has appointed two new senior staff to their Australian and New Zealand operations. 


    Ian Heath has been appointed as the company’s Regional Sales Director for A/NZ. Heath joins DataCore with 25 years of IT industry experience, including roles at EMC Global and Computacenter. Most recently, Heath was EMC’s A/NZ alliances director, driving a multi-level engagement strategy for Telstra's IT transformation, valued in excess of $130 million. Heath said there was growing demand within A/NZ market for software-defined storage and the time was right for DataCore to breakthrough and seize the opportunity.

    “I am looking forward to bolstering customer relationships and resources to deliver valuable outcomes to both our customers and company,” he said. 
    DataCore has also appointed Orla Hanby as Marketing Manager APAC, to lead the region’s marketing and demand generation programs for DataCore’s ANZ partner network. Hanby, formerly marketing director at Media Corp International, has welcomed the new opportunity. “DataCore this year launched its 10th generation SANsymphony-V software and new virtual SAN solutions, which have driven a 50 percent increase in sales growth over last year," she said.
    "I am optimistic that we can sustain these efforts and capitalise on increased momentum in the sector through innovative marketing approaches." The announcement follows news that the company will extend its distribution network in the region and open a new office in Sydney.
    Full Article at ARN: http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/554830/datacore-appoints-new-senior-staff-software-defined-storage-push/ 

    Wednesday 10 September 2014

    Video Interview: Virtual SAN overview & demo by Ben Treiber, DataCore Software



    CRN Slideshow: 35 Must-See Storage Offerings from VMworld 2014

    DataCore Virtual SAN: Any Hypervisor, Any Storage 

    Number 8: http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/virtualization/300073877/vmworld-2014-35-must-see-storage-offerings.htm/pgno/0/8  
















    Experience the power of the new Virtual SAN capabilities and further educate yourself on the benefits of software-defined storage. DataCore is providing free access to a non-production use Virtual SAN software license. The free SANsymphony-V10 Virtual SAN software is now available for download at: www.datacore.com/Free-Virtual-SAN.



    Also, check out the new Virtual SAN design and deployment guide

    Saturday 6 September 2014

    VMblog catches up with DataCore about SANsymphony-V10 at VMworld 2014

    VMblog stopped by DataCore's booth at VMworld 2014 to interview Paul Murphy and Ben Treiber to learn more about DataCore Software and get a demo of SANsymphony-V10. 

    Friday 5 September 2014

    DataCore ANZ Welcomes New Staff, New Facilities and New Customers for Software-Defined Storage

    “The storage industry is undergoing major disruption and the time is right for DataCore ANZ to breakthrough and seize the market opportunity,” said Ian Heath, Regional Sales Director (ANZ), DataCore Software. “The reality is that in region an increase in the adoption of software-defined storage strategies proves the tremendous value that DataCore offers by not only integrating customers’ storage architectures, but safeguarding their data for continuous availability, as well as accelerating access to data for the fastest response and highest throughput.” 

    DataCore ANZ Highlights of 2014 thus far include:

    • Robust growth for new system sales. Examples of new DataCore customers include House of Travel based in New Zealand and Dennis Family Homes, a major Australian home builder.
    • New senior management with Ian Heath serving as Regional Sales Director ANZ.
    • Technical expertise with an expanded team of system engineers and solutions architects serving as on-demand resources for customers and partners alike.
    • A new marketing function headed by Orla Hanby, Marketing Manager - APAC, located in Melbourne Australia, that can now drive demand generation programmes and better serve the DataCore ANZ partner ecosystem with qualified prospects who have been exposed to and educated about the benefits of software-defined storage.
    • New inside sales and customer care resources to increase sales engagements and better inform and serve our installed customer base.
    • More local webinars and local events. For example, DataCore’s Solution Architect David Bull and our local teams are hosting a series of breakfast meetings in Sydney & Melbourne, contact ANZinfo@datacore.com for more info.
    • A growing presence in region – with a DataCore ANZ office in Sydney joining an expanded DataCore office in Melbourne.
    • A 50% increase in sales growth compared to last year’s first half of the year business.

    The ANZ team is also enhanced by a distribution network that includes: Avnet Technology SolutionsIndependent Data Solutions (IDS)NewLease and Westcon Group. Moreover the reseller channel extends the DataCore ecosystem throughout ANZ. Resellers include: Addax, Data#3, Data.com, DiGiCOR, Flexnet, Lincom Solutions, Think Solutions, and numerous others.

    “DataCore started the software-defined revolution in storage, has thousands of customers worldwide, and now is well positioned with a presence and a high-caliber team in ANZ to amplify our industry impact,” stated Peter Thompson, Vice President - Asia Pacific, DataCore Software. “Customers are realizing through DataCore that it’s not about the storage. Instead, it’s about turning the focus to data by delivering unmatched availability, utilization and performance.”

    The ANZ Market Recognizes That Software-Defined Storage Is Transformative

    Customers in key industry segments are using DataCore’s software-defined storage services platform to eliminate downtime, to achieve up to a 4x increase in capacity utilization, up to 10x increase in performance, to reduce storage costs by as much as 75%, and to make storage management both easy and simple. Notable DataCore ANZ accounts include:

    Education:  Murdoch University, St John Ambulance Australia (Vic) Inc, Family Planning Victoria

    Healthcare: Bendigo Radiology, Canterbury District Health Board

    Government: Kingston City Council, Public Transport Authority of Western Australia, Greater Dandenong City Council, Australian Taxation Office, Statistics New Zealand, and Roads and Maritime Services (NSW)

    Industry Leaders: Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ports of Auckland, Nintendo Australia PTY Ltd., and Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd.