New Hybrid Cloud Software-Defined Storage Solution Certified; Combines DataCore Storage Virtualisation flexibility with Microsoft Azure StorSimple

Hybrid Cloud Storage Solution Enables Enterprises to Leverage On-premise, Private Cloud and Public Cloud Resources to Optimize Storage Performance and Costs

DataCore today announced at the Powering the Cloud conference that the newest Microsoft Azure StorSimple 8000 and the StorSimple 7000 Series Hybrid Cloud Storage Arrays are certified as DataCore Ready. StorSimple and Microsoft Azure combine with DataCore’s Virtual SAN andSANsymphony-V storage virtualization and services platform to offer a hybrid cloud storage solution that enhances the utilization and productivity of existing primary storage residing locally, while providing a cost-effective way to utilize and integrate off-premise cloud storage for backup, archive and disaster recovery. The StorSimple Hybrid Storage Arrays were awarded the DataCore Ready certification after the successful completion of a rigorous verification and test process.

DataCore and Microsoft Combine to Tier, Migrate, Backup, Archive and Do Recovery from the Cloud  
StorSimple hybrid cloud storage appliances are able to integrate on-premise, DataCore-managed and virtualized solid state and disk-based storage with the Microsoft Azure cloud, providing a powerful solution to tier to and access even larger off-premise scalable cloud storage. The appliances make it practical to automate off-site backups, offload inactive archive data from on-premises, and provide dedupe, compression, replication and mobility services to lower costs and accelerate disaster recovery. The combination of Microsoft Azure, StorSimple and DataCore helps meet the requirements of enterprises in need of a hybrid cloud strategy and infrastructure that seamlessly blends on-premise and private cloud resources with off-premise highly scalable public cloud resources.

DataCore SANsymphony-V software-defined storage and Virtual SAN software solutions are designed to maximize the performance, availability and utilization of IT assets. DataCore’s storage virtualization software provides a common platform that works across any storage hardware – pooling and protecting a mix of storage devices and brands (including flash, SAN or cloud), while centralizing management and automating many of the functions. DataCore’s sophisticated auto-tiering capability optimizes storage performance and automates the migration of data based on storage classifications and policies to maximize effective resource utilization across solid-state flash technologies, disks and cloud storage. The software allows organizations to dynamically select the most appropriate storage tier and paths to achieve their desired levels of performance and availability.

DataCore can access and auto-tier storage directly to the Microsoft StorSimple appliance, allowing it to  fully optimize on-site data storage resources while leveraging the cloud for elastic storage needs such as archival, remote-site backups, snapshot storage and disaster recovery workloads.

"A major challenge within the storage infrastructure today is the missing flexibility for growth," says Robert Gorbahn, Senior Solution Sales Professional, Microsoft StorSimple. "With Microsoft Azure StorSimple and SANsymphony-V customers build an extremely cost-efficient solution by integrating different storage classes. The most current StorSimple 8000 series extends every DataCore storage environment seamlessly with a Microsoft Azure cloud-integrated storage tier. The Logos "certified for Windows Server 2012 R2" and "DataCore ready" further prove the validation of these solutions."

“Our DataCore Ready Program identifies solutions that are verified to enhance DataCore software-defined storage infrastructures. The combination of DataCore and StorSimple appliances provides a seamless way to leverage the Microsoft Azure cloud as a tier of storage within the enterprise’s virtual storage pool,” said Paul Murphy, vice president of worldwide marketing, DataCore Software. “This provides a very flexible solution to meet the increasing and constantly changing needs of enterprises to cost-effectively offsite data protection, archive and offload corporate data to the cloud.” 

At Powering the Cloud 2014, DataCore previews latest release of its Virtual SAN and SANsymphony-V, and announces DataCore Ready Certification for Microsoft Azure StorSimple

Breakthrough in scalability and performance for ‘any hypervisor, any storage’ - DataCore Virtual SAN. 

DataCore this week will showcase its Virtual SAN solution and preview its latest product innovations at Powering the Cloud 2014 (Congress Center, Frankfurt a.M., Germany, 28-29 Oct., Stand G70).  DataCore will also highlight its growing network of strategic alliances with new DataCore Ready certified joint solutions from major partners like Fujitsu, Dell and Microsoft. The next release introduces new breakthroughs in scalability and performance, providing  more powerful and comprehensive enterprise-class functionality to DataCore’s  SANsymphony™-V10storage services platform and to its ‘any hypervisor, any storage’ DataCore™ Virtual SAN.

At Powering the Cloud 2014 DataCore will preview an important update to DataCore’s Software-defined Storage platformSANsymphony-V10 that will be made available in November 2014. The new SANsymphony-V10 and Virtual SAN update release features breakthroughs in the areas of scalability and performance and provides new innovations including a new capability designed to highly optimize random write processing, especially for transaction-oriented applications like databases and ERP systems.

DataCore’s new ‘any hypervisor, any storage’ Virtual SAN capabilities will be featured at the show. DataCore Virtual SANeliminates the need to deal with the traditional high costs and complexities of storage networks. Unlike alternative approaches, it is not bound to a single hypervisor platform or locked to specific storage hardware vendor’s system, instead it works cross-platform with all major hypervisors (VMware vSphere, KVM, Microsoft Hyper-V, etc.) and popular flash and storage device offerings. The new update will further enhance enterprise-class functionality and scaling of DataCore’s ‘any hypervisor, any storage’ Virtual SAN by doubling the number of nodes supported up to 64, boosting random IO performance and providing an extended growth path to integrate and unify physical SANs with SANsymphony-V making it one of the most powerful and scalable systems available on the market today.

Another important example of the growth and expansion of DataCore’s partner ecosystem is the strategic cooperation with Microsoft. At Powering the Cloud 2014, DataCore will deliver demos and presentations at their booth G70 on how to benefit from using DataCore Virtual SANs in Microsoft Hyper-V environments. The partners will use the event to announce a new certified solution that allows customers to use DataCore to manage and virtualize on-premise storage and do backups and tier workloads and archive storage to Microsoft Azure-based Cloud storage.

"Software is driving the future of storage and our software-defined “data anywhere” architecture enables organizations to manage, virtualize and leverage all resources from server flash and disk to the external SAN and to the Cloud from a single point spanning different departments, data centres and remote locations regardless of storage or server brands or hypervisor platforms”, says Christian Hagen, Senior Vice President EMEA, who will represent DataCore with European top level representatives at the branch leading event. “So we identified Powering the Cloud 2014 is an ideal platform to provide end users and partners with the first preview on our upcoming release of our flagship SANsymphony-V and Virtual SAN solutions and feature our newest certified and ready-to-go offerings that we have developed with strategic partners Fujitsu, Dell, Microsoft and many others.”

Free DataCore Virtual SAN licenses:

DataCore is offering free, non-production licenses of its Virtual SAN software intended primarily for technical specialists, virtualization consultants, certified storage experts, instructors and architects evaluating technologies to manage and optimize storage infrastructures. To request a copy and learn more, please see www.datacore.com/products/features/virtual-san. 

PC PRO Magazine Reviews DataCore Software SANsymphony-V10

Verdict

This software takes storage virtualisation to the next level...

As network storage demands grow, SMBs can easily find that their expansion plans lock them in with one hardware vendor. DataCore's SANsymphony-V10 offers a smarter solution: by using storage virtualisation, it allows businesses to pick and choose their hardware...

Read more: DataCore Software SANsymphony-V10 review 

Join DataCore & Transdev for a delicious breakfast this Thursday!

Further to the success of our breakfasts over the past few months, we have the pleasure in inviting you to another exclusive and delectable breakfast in one of Melbourne’s finest eateries; Feddish restaurant, Federation Square, on 23rd October 2014. This time, we will also be introducing you to one of our valued customers - Mark Naidoo, IT Infrastructure Manager, Transdev.

Please register for our breakfast on this Thursday, 23rd October, at 7.45am.

(Image supplied by Transdev)

This breakfast 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.

Mark Naidoo, IT Infrastructure Manager, Transdev, will be there to speak about why Transdev chose DataCore Software to drastically improve and enhance their storage environment. You will also get the chance to ask Mark any questions about his and Transdev's choice, of DataCore Software.

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

DataCore’s breakfast is an exclusive opportunity to sit down with some of your colleagues, enjoy a delicious breakfast, while listening to Mark Naidoo of Transdev and hearing a presentation by David Bull, Director, Technical Sales, DataCore Software, on Software defined Storage in Action.

We ask you to please register your attendance to our breakfast and we look forward to seeing you this Thursday the 23rd October 2014. If you would like to bring along a colleague(s) please feel free to forward this invitation onto them.

Webinar: The time is right for a Software-defined revolution in storage

The storage industry is undergoing major disruption.

Storage hardware vendors are unsurprisingly, branding existing solutions comprising of proprietary hardware, with software as "software-defined". Join DataCore Software in this Webinar for complete independence from the underlying hardware, increased performance, greater utilisation, reduced effort on routine storage tasks and to virtually eliminate storage related downtime.

Presented by David Bull, Director Technical Sales from DataCore on 20th October 2014. Learn how our software solves many of the storage-related challenges encountered in a traditional storage practice, with software-defined storage virtualization, supporting all the major storage hardware suppliers and host environments.

Register for our Webinar now!

Date: October 20th 2014

Time: 2.00pm - 3.00pm (AEST)

DataCore wins Discount Retail Chain 'Cheap as Chips' Contract

Discount retail chain will implement DataCore’s SANsymphony-V Software-defined Storage in NSW, Victoria and South Australia

Software-defined storage firm, DataCore, has struck a deal to provide Australian discount retail chain, Cheap as Chips, with its storage network solution across three states.

Cheap as Chips will implement DataCore’s SANsymphony software to manage its storage network in its 30 stores across South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

Cheap as Chips ICT manager, Eamonn Merrifield, said the company needed to modernise its existing infrastructure to improve flexibility and performance of its storage network.

“Performance is paramount to run our key business applications – we usually carry over 14,000 product lines at any time and the tiered storage solution offers us performance in areas where we need it most,” he said.

“A primary factor in Cheap as Chips’ decision to go with DataCore was they do not restrict us to certain storage vendors.

"This allows us to take advantage of the rapidly changing storage market,” he said.

DataCore regional sales director, Ian Heath, said the company was pleased to welcome Cheap as Chips to its client base and looked forward to providing it with software-defined storage solutions.

From ARN: http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/557211/datacore-wins-cheap-chips-contract/ 

DataCore Customer Net Entertainment Drives Over 16 Billion Commercial Transactions using SANsymphony-V Software-defined Storage

IP Expo Europe 2014 is on today and tomorrow: DataCore Showcases Software-defined Storage Customers, 'No Limits' Virtual SAN and free license offer for ‘Any Storage, Any Hypervisor’ Software

NetEnt Onsite Customer Testimonial proves real-world Business Value of Software-Defined Storage infrastructure supporting over 16 Billion Commercial Transactions a Year 


At the shows’ ever popular “Software Defined Data Centre Theatre”, DataCore is pleased to invite one of the world’s leading online gaming companies, NetEnt (NetEntertainment), to present each day on how they have improved their productivity and overcame IT specific challenges within their industry including rapidly emerging and changing regulations by deploying DataCore software to enable the business to perform over 16 billion transactions a year in one of the fastest growing European markets. 

“No known hardware based solution could be identified to offer improvement in regard to our exacting storage requirements. In fact, amongst all well-known storage vendors, there was no real encompassing solution until we evaluated DataCore’s SANsymphony-V software. DataCore’s SDS platform gives NetEnt all the storage flexibility, high availability, performance and functionality required and improves our overall data security with an adaptable design for future requirements, which is a key priority for us”, comments Anders Redander, NetEnt’s Infrastructure Architect . “That’s why I am happy to be talking about our experience in the theatre and off the stand each day at IP Expo.”

In addition to the presentations, Anders will also be hosting a Customer Clinic on the stand, where attendees have the opportunity to have an independent no-holes barred discussion on the merits and concerns they may have in adopting software defined infrastructure. For those that still need convincing, attendees will be offered a free special Virtual SAN software license for virtualisation and storage experts to test-drive back at base. 

IP Expo 2014

DataCore, today and tomorrow is at the new IP Expo 2014 to show European attendees the power of its new ‘any hypervisor, any storage’ Virtual SAN software and its SANsymphony-V10 storage services platform, already proven in over 10,000 customer installs. On stand K8, DataCore demonstrates how the comprehensive 10th generation SDS platform and the DataCore Virtual SAN, resolves the challenges of managing separate ‘data islands’, integrating cost-effective commodity hardware, adding innovative Flash technology, and avoiding lock-ins caused by the convergence movement that adopters face in their journey towards a software defined data centre. 

“One of the key themes of IP Expo is the emergence of software defined and we are relishing the opportunity to tell everyone how we address their environments across any storage and on any hypervisor.” Comments George Teixeira, CEO and president at DataCore. “DataCore enables businesses to get started with a high performance, stretchable and scalable virtual SAN at an appealing price without dealing with the cost and complexity hassles of traditional SANs or forcing limitations to using a single vendor hypervisor or specific flash and disk storage brands.”  

DataCore “Any Hypervisor, Any Storage” Virtual SAN scales up to the Enterprise level DataCore™ Virtual SAN leverages its 10th generation SDS technology to create an highly flexible, performant and scalable cross-platform shared storage for all major hypervisors (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V etc.). With DataCore’s Virtual SAN, organisations can virtualise server flash and server disks as well as integrate external storage arrays into a cost efficient virtual SAN for virtual servers. Thus it eliminates the need to deal with traditional SAN costs and complexities, while it accelerates performance to more than 50 million IOPS and scales to 32 petabytes of capacity across a cluster of up to 32 servers, making it one of the most powerful and scalable systems available. DataCore’s Virtual SAN capabilities allows companies to automatically tier and optimise their storage investments to achieve the best balance of price and performance, regardless of storage or server brands, hypervisor platforms or location of the data.

Putting It All Together with DataCore SANsymphony-V10, the Ultimate Storage Services Platform With growing demand for capacity and speed, the DataCore Virtual SAN (empowering both server Flash and disk technologies) can seamlessly integrate or migrate into a physical SAN of enterprise dimensions with petabytes of data under the Software Defined Storage platform SANsymphony-V spanning different departments, data centres and remote locations. DataCore SANsymphony-V10 provides a complete range of storage services to enhance, virtualise and manage existing and new storage assets enterprise-wide.

DataCore’s advanced technology allows for continuous data availability, with nearly zero percent downtime, reducing storage costs by up to 75 percent and improving the I/O performance of virtualized applications by up to 10x. DataCore customers report up to 4x increase in capacity utilisation, nearly 100 percent reduction in storage-related downtime, as well as a 90 percent decrease in time spent on routine storage tasks.

Stand K8: Free DataCore Virtual SAN for Virtualisation Followers
DataCore is commemorating its 10th generation release by offering a free, non-production lab use Virtual SAN software licenses. Intended primarily for technical specialists, virtualisation consultants, certified storage experts, instructors and architects evaluating technologies to manage and optimise storage infrastructures, the software will help organisations evaluate and experience the value of a converged infrastructure. Drop by the stand or request a copy at: www.datacore.com/products/features/virtual-san.